Across Europe, people had listened to Bagman's introduction. Many had settled in to watch the event. The Triwizard tournament had become an absolute hit. Many gathered in parties to watch, happy to experience exciting magic from the comfort of their homes. If they weren't at home or couldn't afford a Videus crystal, then people had flocked to pubs where the event could be watched. The leaky cauldron, the three broomsticks, and the Hogshead had rarely had been so packed, as people piled in to watch the final task. Bets were placed and toasts to the champions rang out!
In the Leaky Cauldron, a man with many scars and scruffy robes got comfortable in his seat. Unlike the crowd around him, Remus Lupin was more nervous than excited. He would be watching his favorite student and the girl he thought of as a niece, take on scary and exciting creatures. He hoped his nerves would hold.
In Hagrid's hut, two large black dogs sat in front of a Videus screen that Dumbledore had set up himself. Fang was not paying attention to the screen and was sniffing at the unfamiliar dog. The other dog was looking at the screen with rapt attention. Sirius watched his goddaughters face as she listened to Bagman. He was nervous for her and hoped that nothing happened she couldn't handle.
Finally, everyone across Europe quieted down as Bagman counted down.
With a bang, they were off, and the world watched as Harriet and Cedric entered the maze.
Harriet very quickly encountered her first obstacle, but hinkypunks didn't phase her. She recognized the little light for what it was and didn't follow it down the path. She had no doubt that it would have led her right into a bog, but she chose the opposite direction without fuss.
The next obstacle, however, caused her a bit of trouble.
She rounded a corner deeper in the maze and came to a skidding halt when she saw a giant statue in front of her, it stood at about fifteen feet. The statue was roughly in the shape of a man, but like a child had made it from playdough. Thick tree trunk legs and a barrel body. Its arms were giant fingerless clubs that were in longer in proportion to its body, like a gorilla. However, for what it lacked in the finesse of its shape it made up for in style. There was an intricately carved pattern on its body, that glowed a faint blue. However, the strangest thing about it was that it was wearing a bucket on its head.
Well, maybe not a bucket, but some black helmet. She had half a second to appraise the giant before it lumberingly turned towards her. As it turned the heavy mass shook the ground slightly and Harriet swallowed. She didn't like the look of that giant thing and decided to take action.
"Reducto!" Her blasting spell hit the statue and blasted a hole in the torso. Celebrations were short-lived as the blasted hole just seemed to fill itself in. The giant focused on her and there was a brief second where she could swear it was glaring at her through its weird helmet. Then it started to move.
It came lumbering towards her with surprising speed.
She squeaked an embarrassing "eep!"
Then lifted her wand again and fired a second reducto, this time aiming for the head. She was shocked, however, when the spells seemed to be absorbed by the helmet, not even making it's regular 'BOOM.'
The effect that the bucket had on her spell surprised her so much that she wasted a couple of precious seconds. The thing was now upon her and it lifted its arm to swing down at her.
Crap!
She waited for the last second and dived forward and to the right, somersaulting out of the way. She scrambled to regain her footing slipping a few times on the wet grass. The statue was now spinning slowly to swipe at her again with its left arm. Fortunately, it didn't have much agility, and corners seemed to be a problem.
The giant arm came down right where she had been a moment earlier and she was off to the races. She ran down the corridor and away from the thing, moving forward, and in the direction she wanted to go.
Unfortunately, it was chasing her, its giant, heavy strides shaking the ground. It was gaining on her despite her head start.
Okay, don't panic, think it through, she told herself. What was it? It clicked then what it was. Mr. Prevost had told her about it at the Yule Ball. A golem! Giant guardians that you couldn't destroy unless you hit their core.
Three guesses where the core was on the golem chasing her. It was probably under the strange bucket on its head. The dark black bucket that was probably made of Lemuria Obsidian based on how it had absorbed the spell she had fired at it.
So, she wouldn't be able to get to the core with magic, due to Lemuria Obsidians ability to absorb magic. But maybe she could get at it physically, as the black rock was extremely brittle!
Plan made, she aimed her wand ahead. She wouldn't have time to make a mistake on this, and she really hoped her transfiguration was up to scratch. Fortunately, she would be transforming like substances so it should be okay.
Her wand was aimed at the hedges and she yelled out two diffindo cutting curses. The spell hit the hedge and cleaved off two thick branches. The hedge however immediately repaired itself, by regrowing the spot that was bare.
That was fine with her because she was more interested in the branches of the hedge now lying uselessly on the ground. She skidded to a halt beside the branches and started some speedy transfiguration. One of the branches turned into an object that she had become very familiar with this year. A crossbow.
Due to her familiarity, she was able to shape the transfiguration exactly how she wanted. She then turned the second branch and changed it into a bolt. This took half a second longer because she had to change the arrow point into metal.
The golem was closer. She picked up the objects, and with surprising speed, she knocked the bolt, brought it up to her shoulder, spun to face the golem, and took aim.
She took a fraction of a second to breathe out, steady her arm, and then fired.
The golem was only ten feet behind her with its arm was already raised to strike. Her aim was true, and the blot splintered the helmet and it shattered around the golems head. Its lumpy imitation head was now exposed.
The golem was still coming at her though, the arrow had not shattered the core, just got rid of the helmet. The giant was on top of her and ready to strike.
She dropped the crossbow, lifted her wand again, and held her ground. She really hoped this worked.
"REDUCTO!"
Her spell hit the Golem's head point blank and the clay head exploded backward.
There was a tense second where both the golem and Harriet were frozen. Then the giant clay monster seemed to crack like pottery. The cracks spread like spider webs over its body, then it crumpled and fell into a pile of clay pieces at Harriet's feet. Harriet could only stare at it wide-eyed and breathe out a sigh of relief, that it had worked.
"Thank you, Hagrid," she murmured, thankful the giant man had taught her such a useful skill.
"Excellent!" Bagman's voice rang out back in the spectator area. "Miss Potter defeats a golem with some excellent transfiguration. Who knew she could fire a crossbow! It was a close one though! A couple more seconds and Miss Potter would be a pancake HAHAHA"
Hermione and Ron in the crowds breathed out a sigh of relief together. They did become a bit embarrassed when the realized that they were clutching at each other and jumped away with their cheeks pink.
"Oh, and look over their Cedric is taking on a blast-ended skrewt!"
Harriet decided that she wanted to keep her crossbow in case she ran into another golem. She did cut and transfigured another bolt for the crossbow, then carried on with the maze. She kept moving in the rough direction of northeast using the point me spell to keep her self orientated.
When she turned the next corridor, she froze at the strange sight ahead of her.
There was a bathroom sink in the middle of the path. Well, it looked like a sink at least. It was a thin pedestal with a flat square counter on top, and a glowing blue tap on top of that. It wasn't quite a sink though, as there was no basin, and the tap faced backward and away from the pedestal. If water came out of the tap it would hit the ground and not the counter.
Maybe she had to execute proper hygiene to get past the obstacle.
It wasn't doing anything but cautiously she crept forward, waiting for it to do something. She stopped five feet in front of it and appraised the strange sight.
There was something in front of the tap as well, it looked like a pen, but without a ballpoint or any visible ink. It was definitely a trap, and there was probably something that she had to do to get by it. She could go back and find another way, but no guarantee that would be better, and this seemed easier than fifteen feet golems.
She decided that she may as well continue forward, so she took a step towards the pedestal.
Instantly the trap sprung. Strange misty white walls, that she could just see through sprung up around her. She was a misty cube, with the pedestal in the center. It would not have been so bad, except the tap in the middle started to leak water.
Well, not leak, it was more like gushing. Water flowed quickly from the tap and started to spread across the floor.
She ran forward to the opposite side and placed her hands against the misty wall. It acted solid so there was no way she was physically getting through it. She stepped back and fired a reducto, thinking she may be able to break it. She wasn't terribly surprised when the spell flew through the wall acting like there wasn't a barrier at all. It would be too easy if she just fired reducto's all day.
The water was up to her ankles.
She dropped her crossbow, ran back to the pedestal, and picked up the weird pen, maybe it was a clue. She recognized it as a steele, an object used by rune makers to carve out their symbols. She recognized it because Hermione took ancient runes. When she picked it up there was a flash of light and symbols began to appear across the flat part of the pedestal.
The script flowed from right to left across stand and was obviously spelling something out. When the writing finished there was a large space at the bottom, which indicated that it was to be used as a place to write a rune or runes.
The only problem was Harriet knew nothing about runes. She had been shown a couple by Hermione but had never shown any interest in them. And now it was coming back to bite her in the ass. She dropped the steele. There was honestly nothing she could do with it.
The water was at her knees
She looked around frantically. Okay, okay, think. What could she do? But she was drawing a blank and was starting to panic.
She was trapped inside and couldn't break out.
Break out!
A light bulb went off and she realized she had to break out of here as she had broken into Snape's office. This trap was acting like the tripwire charms that Snape had used, in that it was a created a sheet of magic that contained an area. Maybe she could find the point of origin of the spell and reflect it back on itself. Thereby breaking the cube.
She was guessing that every side of the cube would have its own point of origin somewhere along the edge of the square, so she ran forward to the side of the direction in which she wanted to go.
The water was just above her knees as she splashed forward. She cast a series of spells. Firstly, oculus aquaris a spell she had learned for the second task but had not needed, it allowed her to see underwater like she was wearing goggles. Next, Sonorous aquaris which allowed her to speak underwater making spellcasting easier. And finally, the magilico spell, that helped reveal the presence of magic by creating a little light at the end of the wand that would flare up when near a particularly high concentration of magic.
Unfortunately, the magical revealing spell was pretty useless most of the time, so she would also have to use her own ability to sense of magic to find the origin. This required a great deal of concentration that she wasn't sure she could muster in the current situation.
Quickly she got to work. She started where she could reach above the water on the left-hand side. She went slow. She could not miss the point of origin. She ran her hands and wand along the edge, trying desperately to focus on the feel of magic, versus the feel of water sloshing at her hips.
Slowly she ran her hand and wand up the edge from about hip level. It was torturous to try and keep her mind focused on the task and not the rising water.
Keep calm, keep calm.
Fortunately, the box was not tall, so she could reach the top edge of the box.
Unfortunately, by the time she started on the top edge the water was at her chest. She started to take deep breathes as she moved along in preparation.
She was midway along the top when the water reached her chin. What she wouldn't give to be taller. She paused to cast a flotation charm on herself.
"Supernatentis," she said and she felt herself bob up so that her shoulders just rested above the water. Another spell she had learned in preparation for the second task.
She continued her scanning while now floating along in the filling tank.
As she finished the end of the top edge, she was now being squished by the water, her floating charm, and the roof of the cube. In the top corner, she took a second to cancel her floating spell.
"Finite supernatentis"
Instantly she felt herself drop in the water and was surprised when she submerged. She came back to the top and held her self afloat by treading water. She didn't have much space though.
There was little more than a half foot gap between the water and the top of the cube now. She lifted her face as the gap between water and roof closed. Deep breath, deep breath, three, two, one.
Harriet took one last large gulp of air and submerged. She didn't know how long she could hold her breathe for, but she wasn't willing to bet on a long time.
She began her scanning again starting in the top corner and working down. It was awkward trying to swim down while scanning. She was moving faster than before, being a little less cautious in her desperation to not drown.
Her eyes were trained on her wand and her mind was focused on her hand as she moved down, but as the seconds passed, she felt her lungs start to burn. Keep focused, keep focused
It must have taken her about forty-five seconds to scan the left edge and now she was starting on the bottom. However, her lungs were starting to scream for air, and spots were beginning to dance in her vision. She focused all her energy on her hand and the end of her wand, while precious little bubbles were slipping past her lips.
She was moving fast along the bottom and therefore almost missed it. It was the faintest tingle on her finger, but she didn't know if it was the lack of air or magic. She moved back an inch or two and brought the tip of her wand close, the end of her wand got the faintest bit brighter, and her fingers tingled just a bit. The spot was in the middle of the bottom edge.
She hoped that this was the spot, cause if not she was wasting the last of her air.
"Flecto speculo," she said, her voice resonating through the water due to the charm she had placed earlier. A little mirror appeared at the end of her wand and she moved it into place over the point.
It was like a dam bursting. The wall of the cube disappeared, and she ended up ass or head as the water burst forward. She tumbled with the water and was sprawled out onto the now sopping grass. Desperately she coughed and tried to gulp down air, taking deep gasping breathes as she lay back on the sopping wet grass.
It took her a minute to get her breath back, but finally, she had opened her eyes and was looking up at the sky. That had been much too close for comfort. She had nearly drowned twice in this competition and that was twice too many.
The entire crowd had been holding their breath while Harriet had been looking for a way out of the cube.
As one they released a sigh when she came sprawling out onto the grass.
Bagman gave a nervous chuckle. "Well that was a close one folks," he said shaking his head. "Not sure how she managed to break the trap, but however unorthodox it seems to have worked and Harriet made it through. That obstacle did take at least five minutes though so let's hope she doesn't run into one of those again."
If anyone was looking closely, they would have seen Snape grinding his teeth, as he watched Harriet exercise that particular skill. He had been stumped as too how she could have broken his sensory spells on his door frame, but he had never thought of magical reflection. It was simple but effective, and a very muggle thing to come up with. If it was anyone else, he would have admired the imaginative solution. But as is was Potter, really all he could think was… that… CHEEKY BLOODY BRAT! EXACTLY LIKE HER FATHER! AND PRACTICALLY BRAGGING ABOUT IT TOO! AS SHE USES IT ON THE VIDEUS SCREEN FOR THE WORLD TO SEE!
Snape noticed Dumbledore shot him an amused look. He just glowered at the meddling old man. If anything that just made the old codger more amused.
"Oh and look at Miss Delacour! Oh no, look out behind you!" Bagman redirected the attention of the crowd.
The crowd watched as an acromantula crept over the hedge behind Fleur. They gasped as she was knocked down when it sprung on her. Fleur barely managed to get out from under the spider and was trying to get away.
She put up a good fight with the beast, and she made a break for it, as she managed to fend it off. She turned a corner with the spider on her heels and found herself in a dead end. She turned to face the spider and began a second assault of spells. The spider was overwhelmed, and Fleur tried to make a break past the creature.
In an unlucky turn of events, the hedge seemed to reach out and snag her robes as she went past and because of her momentum she was stopped and jerked into the side of the hedge. There was the acromantula's thick, sticky webbing woven within the hedge itself and fleur became stuck in the mess. The more she struggled the more she became entwined.
Fleur was stuck.
The giant spider was approaching, and the crowd could see the poor girl panicking. She desperately tried to fight it off with any an impressive barrage of spells, but the creatures resilient hide let it hunker down and scuttle forward slowly.
Fleur realized she was good and caught so lifted her wand and fired red sparks into the air.
Like magic, Hagrid appeared. He grabbed the beast around the neck with his large arms and hauled it back like he was wrestling an eight-legged crocodile. The scuffle only lasted a minute as the giant spider was no match for Hagrid's raw strength. The spider scuttled off and Mr. Holly appeared. He waved his wand while Hagrid worked on freeing Fleur. Then Fleur's portion of the screen disappeared.
"Oh, that's so unfortunate! A dead end and then getting snagged on the hedge like that. Horrible luck really!" Bagman called. The Beuxbaton student's and many of the Hogwarts boys were upset. Most of France groaned as well at Fleurs terrible luck.
But there was nothing to be done and Fleur was brought back to the medi tent in the main area.
And now, there was only three.
W hen Harriet finally managed to get up, she was cold and wet.
There was still evening light, but the coolness of the evening was upon them. She quickly cast a warming charm and a drying charm on herself, which took away most of the chill and wetness but still left her damp. Especially her under clothes.
She picked up her crossbow, which had survived the water experience, and moved forward again into the maze.
She had not got far when Cedric came stumbling out of one of the paths off to the right. His robes were singed.
"Just got caught by a blast-ended skrewt!" he explained.
Then was off down another path. Deciding not to linger with the skrewt she kept going forward.
She wasn't lucky, however, because the skrewt came flying over the hedge a moment later. Harriet barely got out of the way of the giant flying insect before it landed on top of her. As the creature hit the ground it fired off its tail with a loud bang and a burst of flame. She was fortunately not in the direct path of the flame, but her legs were. Her outer robe caught fire despite how damp the clothing was. Harriet was now trying to deal with her robe on fire and the skrewt turning its pincered mouth on her. She scrambled back and ripped off her outer robe, throwing it to the side. Then cast an impedimenta as the skrewt reared back. She hit its armored head, which had no effect on the skrewt and seemed to bounce off. This allowed the skrewt to lunge.
She brought her arm up to protect herself and screamed as one of the pincers sunk into her left arm on her bicep. She instinctively brought her wand up and pointed it at the skrewt's underbelly, and at point black range she fired a stunner.
"Stupefy!"
The underbelly was not armored, and the withering insect creature froze as stupefy hit it.
She rolled the giant bug off her and stood up quickly. She was going to get out of here quick.
She pointed her wand at her still burning robe, a stream of water shot out and put out the fire. She grabbed her now smoldering robe and the crossbow, which she had dropped as she dived out of the way, and quickly left the area.
When she was a far enough distance away, she stopped and assessed the damage.
Her upper arm was cut, but the skrewt hadn't got her too bad, she had definitely had worse. However, she was bleeding and she didn't want to be dripping blood everywhere for the beasties to smell her. She wouldn't put it past the skrewt to follow her seeking retribution.
She laid her burnt robe down on the ground and saw that only the bottom half was singed. She cut off the sleeves with a careful diffindo then cut it lengthwise, so she had two strips. The left sleeve of her black, long-sleeved T-shirt was ruined so she cut it off at the shoulder.
With a quick aguamenti, she cleaned her black sleeve and her own arm. A drying charm later and she was wrapping the soft black material around her arm like gauze. She then took the sturdier strips of robe material and tied up the black material tight to her arm and over her shoulder.
Impromptu first aid, check.
Time to keep going.
"Oh, that was one nasty blast ended skrewt! Harriet, unfortunately, had a nasty bite on her left arm, but the girl is resilient. She is wrapping up her arm now and it looks like she is still in the running." Bagman shouted with excitement.
"Ugh, why Hagrid? Why skrewts?" yelled Ron, knowing first hand the pain of those creatures.
"Merlin, they got massive, didn't they?" Hermione said looking a little white.
Ron could only nod. The rest of the school looked a bit white.
H arriet moved forward. The next couple of corridors were clear. She crept up to the next corner and peeked around, before whipping her head back. She stood wide-eyed for a moment with her back to the hedge. She definitely recognized the next obstacle, she was actually on a first name basis with the creature.
"Fluffy," she whispered.
T he Videus charm showed Harriet standing looking frightened and backed up against the hedge. It did not show what she had seen to make her back away, so most of the crowd watching her was assuming the worst. Then surprisingly she whispered one word, 'Fluffy.'
While most were confused, most of the Professors and a couple of students recognized the word.
"She didn't say Fluffy did she?" Ron asked with wide eyes.
"You don't think it's that Fluffy, do you?" Hermione asked nervously. The Gryffindors near them looked to Ron and Hermione.
"Who's Fluffy?" Parvati asked.
"Oh Merlin," Ron said. "That's Fluffy," he said while pointing at the screen where a large monster dog was shown.
Harriet peeked again. In the middle of a circular clearing within the maze, she saw the large, black furred, three-headed canine laying down. On the other side of it, there was the most direct path.
The large three-headed dog was now sniffing the air, no doubt sensing her about. One of the heads started growling and that set off the other two.
Despite the ferocity, however, Harriet thought she could deal with Fluffy. And if she could get past the three-headed dog she was sure she would be closer to the center of the maze.
Putting down her crossbow, she concentrated hard on what she wanted. Like the time down by the lakeside, she was successful in transfiguring the crossbow into a guitar. But, again like the time at the lake, it wasn't perfect and an arrowhead stuck out of the bottom of the guitar. She could work with it though.
As a last thought, she raised her wand again to her throat and cast a sonorous. Against better judgment, she stashed her wand in the holster and picked up the guitar. She quickly focused on an easy tune and began strumming.
She started on Yesterday. Another old classic courtesy of listening to her aunt's records drift through the cupboard door on the long days she was trapped away. She let the tune go for a bit. She listened hard for sounds from Fluffy. As she played, the growling slowed then stopped. She mustered her courage then turned the corner
Fluffy was thankfully sitting. All three heads were cocked, and the six ears were perked forward. His eyes were on her though and he didn't look sleepy. She swallowed and decided to go all in. She hoped that Fluffy liked the Beatles.
She lifted her voice in song and made her tone as soothing as possible.
It seemed to work, as Fluffy laid down and rested its large heads on its paws. It kept its eyes on her, but she continued to sing and strum. She swayed to the rhythm and kept her voice soft. Slowly the three sets of eyes started to drift close, first the left head, then the right, and finally, the middle head.
Harriet decided to be bold and started to walk forward. Keeping her song going, she slowly and cautiously moved past the dog.
Fluffy just began to snore. She had actually got him to sleep!
It was with no small amount of pride that she reached the opposite side of the space that Fluffy occupied. She kept strumming as she slowly backed away from the large dog. She slowed the tune until she could duck around the next turn in the path. She only stopped playing when she was out of Fluffy sight.
She had done it! She allowed herself a smile and decided that she wasn't going to be needing a guitar anymore, so she leaned the object against the hedge. She canceled the sonorous charm on her voice and stood straighter and turned in the direction she needed to go.
For the first time since this competition began, she felt the stirring of a competitive spirit. She could do this! She may even be able to win.
"Oh Bravo! Bravo!" Bagman clapped loudly. "How she knew to do that, I have no idea, but what a treat! Show within a show! I wonder if she wrote that song…"
Hermione smacked her face. Leave it to wizards to not know who the Beatles were. (1)
Everyone was clapping.
Hagrid, who had brought Fleur back to the medic tent, was just grinning wildly. He knew exactly how Harriet knew how to tame Fluffy. Nothing like personal experience.
"Oh, but look there, Krum is caught in a trap! Oh, he didn't see it and fell in," Bagman yelled while turning his attention to a different part of the screen.
Hermione gasped as she saw Krum fall into a pit. It was like Harriet's trap, except this one started to fill with sand. Krum tried to climb the walls but found the sides extremely smooth. He made his way through the sand to the rune riddle in the middle. Unfortunately, it became obvious that the translation was proving difficult for Krum. He struggled through the translation that the crowd gained a glimpse due to the Videus charm's angle.
"Oh, that's really tricky! It a multilayered problem!" Hermione whispered to the Weasley's who all gave her blank looks.
Apparently, Krum found it too difficult, because he wasn't able to solve it and the pit filled too quick with sand.
In a last-ditch attempt, Krum transfigured the steele into a grappling hook and conjured some rope. He threw the hook hard and then tugged. It seemed steady so he started to pull himself out of the heavy sand and up. The climbing was difficult as the sand was raining down from the top. But Kurm persevered and was pulling himself out of the pit.
Unfortunately, the grappling hook must have come undone from whatever it was hooked on, because the rope went slack, and Krum fell backward into the sand. He started to be buried as he hit the sand and began sinking fast. Unable to get purchase, he sunk deeper and deeper. At the last second, he raised his arm and fired red sparks into the air before all of Krum disappeared.
McGonagall and Mr. Holly appeared quickly and some quick wand waves from McGonagall freed Krum from the sand. McGonagall rubbed his back as Krum took desperate gasps of air and Mr. Holly waved his wand. Soon Krum's screen went black and then the screen adjusted
Now the screens only showed Cedric and Harriet. It was a Hogwarts battle for the cup.
"Oh, that was terribly unlucky! I really thought he was getting out of there with the rope. I cannot believe the rope gave," Bagman sighed.
And now there were only two.
Harriet turned a corner and immediately felt a dark chill settle upon her that she recognized well.
There was a large dementor floating towards her, its hood black and its scabby, decaying hand reaching out.
Harriet didn't miss a beat.
"Expecto Patronum!" A large stag erupted from her wand. The impressive animal had large antlers with many points, the body stood as tall as Harriet and the head was held high in pride. Immediately Harriet felt calmer.
She flicked her wand and the massive stag threw its head and stamped its hoof. It lowered its massive head and charged forward towards the horrid creature.
The dementor, however, fell back from the charging patronus. Harriet cocked her head.
"Oh! I know what you are… you're no dementor." She flicked her wand and her patronus returned to her to stand behind her. "You're a boggart! Riddikulus!"
Harriet watched as the black hood of the boggart dementor fell away to reveal a thirteen-year-old Malfoy on stilts looking embarrassed and pouting. It was the same image from the third year quidditch final, where Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle had tried to sabotage her.
Remembering the memory and seeing the image of a pouty Malfoy in front of her prompted the result she needed. Harriet let a loud laugh, and the Malfoy wannabe disappeared with a 'poof.' She then turned to her patronus who was radiating its warmth and support behind her. They looked at one another for a moment then it dipped its massive head and disappeared. But she felt her heart swell and her confidence was bolstered.
Malfoy was hiding his head in his hands as the rest of the school laughed. Of course, she would use that against a boggart. Zabini was shaking in mirth beside him, the bloody wanker. Nott, Crabbe, Goyle, and Parkinsons, however, were grinding their teeth.
"Oh dear, an inside joke, I fear. Though it was an impressive patronus." Bagman chortled happily as the rest of Hogwarts laughed.
"Oh, and look at Diggory, he is taking on a red cap!"
Harriet tried to move forward as quickly as possible. It was getting darker and she felt that that was a good indication that she was getting close to the center.
She turned a corner and was heading down an alley when she froze. She had just heard someone speak;
"Sssomeone issss here brothersss."
She strained her ears listening. There was a quiet rustling that she couldn't pinpoint.
"I hear you! Come out whatever you are!" Harriet spoke.
The crowd froze as they heard Harriet speak. Except she wasn't speaking, she was hissing. A lot of the school had heard of the dueling club incident, but only second years had heard her speak Parseltongue. It was a bit of a shock to the system to anyone who was watching to hear such an unsettling sound from her mouth. Of course, she had been outed as a parselmouth earlier in the day in Rita Skeeter's article, but it was still a surprise.
It was more of a surprise though when a huge three-headed snake came sliding over the edge of the hedge. This thing was massive, around thirty feet long. It was a deep orange colour with a pattern of black diamonds on it's back, and pale moon like eyes. Its heads were the size of an armchair, its body was thick as the body of a hippo, and its mouth as wide as Harriet was tall.
Many in the audience screamed at the sight of this large snake slithering to a stop in front of Harriet. Harriet just appeared frozen, and then it began to hiss to her.
"Greetingsss little one, it hasss been many moonssss ssssince we met a ssspeaker," the snake on the left hissed.
"Well, I don't think that we ssshhhould sssstart today. Ssshhhall we jussst eat her?" The snake on the right spoke.
"Ssscamander sssaid no eating. Only ssstopping," the one on the left said. (2)
"Ssstupid! You do ssstupid thingsss," the one on the right said in a pouty voice.
"We mussst not eat it, I would like to meet thisss one," the one in the middle said. He wasn't as far forward as the others and seemed to be swaying and not quite looking at her.
Harriet's head swiveled between the three snakes. She did not have a great history with overly large snakes, but these ones seemed alright, well at least the middle and left head. She recognized what kind of snake it was as well. It was a Runespoor, but it was massive, she didn't even know it could get that big. If legend was correct the one on the left was the planner and decision maker, the one in the middle was the dreamer and saw visions, and the one on the right was the critic. She mustered her courage and hoped that these ones would be like the snake at the zoo. The python had been polite.
"Hello, I'm Harriet." She said to the snake, now recognizing that she was speaking Parseltongue.
"Oh, it'sss a Hairy it!" the one on the left said.
"That'ssss a bad name," the one on the right spoke.
"We are Frank, Franky, and Franklin," middle head said.
Harriet just gave her best 'you gotta be kidding me' look. What kind of names were those for a giant Runespoor! That was worse than Fluffy.
"Well it'sss nissse to meet you, but I need to passsss, sssso would that be alright," she asked the snake. Waving her arm in front of her to indicate where she wanted to go.
"No, you may not, that'sss a bad plan," said right snake.
"No, you may not, but it'sss actually a good plan becaussssse the middle of the maze issss behind ussss," left snake said.
"What if I ssssay pleassssse?" She asked.
"No," right and left hissed together.
"Oh well then, I guesss I have to find another way," she said. She wasn't about to try and take on the massive snake. Really it was just much too big. She turned to leave but was stopped when the snake in the middle spoke.
"I have a gift for you."
"You do?" said left snake.
"You don't give me giftsss! But you are probably a bad gift giver anyway," said right snake.
Harriet just blinked. What could a snake have for her?
"Um… what is it?" Harriet asked.
"I have visionsss, I sssee pathsss, the future, sssometimesss connectionsss. You ssstir my blood little ssspeaker. You have a great dessstiny. I ssshhhall give you a glimpssse," middle head said.
"That isss a ssstupid gift! Told you that you're a bad gift giver," right head said. Harriet couldn't agree more with Frank the right head.
"That ssssoundsss like a prophesssy. I don't really like prophesssiesss." Harriet said giving the middle snake a hard look.
What was it with people trying to tell her the future? First, it was Frienze in the forest in first year, then it was Trewlany in third year, and now a great bloody snake wanted to take a crack at it.
"You mussst acsssept it, it'sss your dessstiny," middle snake coaxed.
"No way, I do not want another prophessssy, either let me passs, or I am leaving," Harriet said. She took a step back and made to turn.
Everyone in the crowd was silent as they watched the exchange. It would have been terrifying but Harriet was only wearing a mild look of annoyance. She was obviously trying to get past the snake but it didn't seem to be budging. Harriet also wasn't in a stance that was particularly defensive so the snake didn't seem to mean her harm.
Hagrid himself was very intrigued, loving the idea of being able to communicate with animals, especially one as big as the runespoor. Likewise, Hermione was curious about the exchange.
Dumbledore himself was happy enough for the exchange to take place again more intrigued than disturbed. However, not everyone was okay with it happening.
"Dumbledore! You must stop this! How can you let this go on, Parselmouths are evil!" Fudge yelled.
"Cornelius, Parselmouths are not evil, Salazar Slytherin himself was a parselmouth and did great things for wizardkind. You are only taking Voldemort as an example and applying it to Harriet. Besides it more likely that she is asking if she can pass. She doesn't want to attack the snake if she doesn't have to, so I think taking the path of least resistance is smart." Dumbledore said with reproach.
Fudge just spluttered.
People in the crowd muttered at this. It did make sense in a way and while strange it wasn't like it was hurting anyone. Most of Hogwarts knew that the reason that Harriet was able to save Ginny Weasley in second year was because she could open the Chamber of Secrets.
Harriet had turned to walk away, but then the snake in the middle hissed something at her and she turned back.
"If you lisssten, then we will let you passs," middle head spoke. This seemed like news to the other heads.
"We are meant to ssstop, not let passs," said left.
"That is a bad deal! Do you even know how to haggle?" said right.
"We will let you passs if you lisssten. The cup isss closse," said middle head.
Harriet debated internally. On one hand, she detested prophecies, there was reason Harriet dropped Trewlanies class. On the other hand, she really wanted to get out of this bloody maze and finish this Tournament. There was also a small competitive part of her that really wanted to win.
"Fine. I will lisssten. But then you will let me passs," she said giving the snake her best McGonagall glare.
"Yessss," the middle head said, then his head slowly came forward towards her. "I will need your blood. Prick your finger on my fang, jussst one drop will sssufissse."
Harriet's eyes widened, "you never mentioned blood. You aren't jussst going to eat my whole arm, will you?"
"No, jusssst a drop," then the middle head was right above her. It opened its jaws wide and its large fangs became unsheathed. The glistening ivory spikes just in front of her. But instead of moving forward the snake stood still and waited for her. She was seriously out of her mind if she was actually going to do this. Maybe she was a bit too Gryffindor.
She knew from magical creature books that only the right head of a Runespoor had venom. But she was still scared of the long fang. Slowly she inched forward and reached out her left hand. Closer and closer she got to the yawning mouth and her throat went dry.
Slowly she reached her hand forward and got close to the fang. Her finger reached the fang and she pressed the tip of her finger against the point. There was a sharp sting in the finger, and she watched blood well around the point.
Quickly she withdrew her hand and backed up a few steps. The snake stayed in the same position, and she watched her drop of blood balance on the point. The snake's eyes moon eyes clouded over and turned a foggy white, like a crystal ball. From the fang, a venom seemed to well. The cloudy venom mixed with her drop of blood making the drop larger. It welled until the gravity took its toll.
The drop fell and hit the ground.
As it hit the grass it seemed to expand like a smoke. The smoke grew and expanded, swirling in strange patterns.
The snake itself closed its mouth and backed off, but not without parting words.
"Good luck, Harriet Potter, for you will need it."
Then the snake led the other heads over the hedge from where they came from. But Harriet was distracted by the swirling white smoke that was growing in front of her.
It grew up and took on a form. It took her a moment to see that it was becoming the smokey outline of women. The woman was tall and slim, she was wearing a simple dress and her smokey hair fell down in stunning waves to her waist. The woman was beautiful but colourless, like looking at a black and white photo with smokey edges. Her skin was the white smoke that seemed to flawlessly seam with the simple white dress. The only other colour was the midnight hair. Because she was so lovely, it took Harriet a moment to understand what she was looking at. But when the smoke woman opened her eyes, Harriet saw the bright burning green.
It was her, but older, the ideal version. Healthy, beautiful and scar free. Her face, however, was frighteningly sad.
As Harriet observed the ghost she noted two things. One that her ghost self was holding a smoky sphere. The grey smoke seemed to swirl in the crystal ball like structure. And the second was the smoke arm was also chained. Heavy dark grey manacle encircled the wrist and the chain attached to the ground at the ghost woman's feet.
There was an instance when there was no movement and the image and Harriet seemed to appraise each other.
Finally, the ghost woman raised her arm. Holding the crystal ball out to Harriet like she should take it, like it was hers.
But her arm was only outstretched for a moment, as an invisible force then pulled the chain and her ghostly arm was pulled down. The crystal ball dropped and disappeared as it hit the ground. The smoke Harriet was jerked down to the side.
The other ghost arm was then tugged harshly as well, violently lurching the women to the opposite side. As soon as the tugging had started her smoke self had started to pull in the opposite directions. Trying to fight the tugging that was dragging her down, resisting with all her might. She was straining with everything she had against the heavy manacles as they bit into her wrist, but it was impossible to break free. Then her ghost self was pulled down hard on both chains and she collapsed to her knees. Her ghost self continued to squirm and fight against the bonds. The face of her counterpart become anguished and desperate.
Harriet herself watched in horror as the chains started to snake around her smoke self and bind her body tighter. There were tears on the ghost's face, her mouth was open and was silently screaming, but the chains continued to pull down. They pulled until the woman was flattened in an awkward kneeling position like she was praying, but it was too strained.
Harriet couldn't help herself as she stepped forward to help, but as soon as she did the woman disappeared.
The smoke dispersed like someone blew out a candle, but after a moment, the smoke seemed to reform. It swirled again, this time becoming darker until it was a cloud of heavy black smoke. It separated into different parts, and from the parts, eight smokey black figures began to form. Eight tall men in black cloaks formed a semicircle around her. They were identical and their faces pointed down.
She stood still for a moment within the ring of these men, her senses on high alert. Then, as one, they moved.
All eight of them looked directly at her, and she could see eight sets of glowing red eyes. They glowed from within the depths of the hood so the face was obscured, but she recognized those eyes.
She yelped and stepped back, and that seemed all they needed for they as well lost their form, like a gust of wind, had blown them away.
For a third time, the smoked seemed to swirl, changing from black to grey. It came together and grew up higher than anytime before, becoming a thin, tall spire. The smoke took on the vague shape of a man, and Harriet began to recognize him. It was the grey man.
As the form took shape, Harriet felt like she had cotton stuffed in her ears, outside noise became muted and all she could hear was her own breathing and pounding heart.
It was one thing to see it drawn, but another to experience it. The grey cloak, made of some swirling material clung around the head, neck, and shoulders of the man. The rest of it undulated unnaturally like there were things squirming around behind the cloak. The cloak itself was almost sheer like she could just see things beneath it but just out of reach. Then there was the noise that seemed to emanate from the man. Not from his mouth but from the man itself. Like the things under the cloak that were whispering to her.
The man's neck was too long, and its head was too thin. Like he had been stretched. The face lacked distinguishing features, but she could just make out the bulge of a nose. There were also the eyes.
The hollow white points where his eyes should be seemed to focus on her and the long strange body bent over so that he towered over her.
From his midsection, definitely not where it should have been anatomically, thin, long fingers, attached to a thin palm, and long wrist began to emerge. The fingers she noticed had an extra joint, making them abnormal. The skin was black in a necrotic way, and the skeletal and claw-like appearance gave the hand a sinister look. The hand was reaching for her and there was nothing that she could do to stop the thing from coming towards her.
The strange hand turned before her, reaching closer to cradle her face in its palm and through the long fingers, she could still see the creature watching her. Her heart pounded like it never had before and her breaths were coming out in strangled gasps. There was a roaring in her ears, and she there were no thoughts in her head, only her vision of the grey man.
Then the middle finger of the hand came close and she shut her eyes. She felt the touch of the grey man more in her mind than on her skin. Like he was reaching past her outer barriers. Then there was a flash of light that seared behind her pupils and her body fell as her mind scrambled for a moment.
There was a moment where she was out of body, then she came back to herself. She had collapsed onto her hand and knees, and when she looked up the smoke was gone. There was an image burned into her retina though, when she closed her eyes it appeared on the back of her eyelids. A strange symbol of a triangle, a line, and a circle.
She blinked a few times to clear the image. While also trying to calm her erratic heart rate. Finally, she looked up again. Her stomach was turning, and her hands were shaking. She wished desperately that Ron, Hermione, and Sirius were here to pick her up. She didn't know what that prophecy meant, but she had never felt more alone than in this moment in the quiet, dark maze.
Slowly she got to her feet and looked forward. She took one more calming breath and began to move onward again.
The spectator area was quiet. Bagman was speechless and there wasn't any cheering to be heard.
It had been strange to watch Harriet have a conversation with a large snake, but Harriet hadn't raised her wand at all, so it was apparently a civil conversation.
The crowd did panic when the middle snake came forward and had opened its large jaws. There was a general outcry when Harriet had stepped towards the creature then reached her hand into its mouth. She was then touching the fang, and the Videus charm had given a close up of her finger against the fang. The crowd saw the welling blood be joined by the venom, and then the drop fell.
The crowd had not been prepared for the strange smoke images and most were confused. Confusion turned to dread however when the grey man appeared. Ron and Hermione recognized the being from Harriet's drawing, but seeing it in person was a whole other story. The air had become heavy and the silence was deafening as the thing appeared. Hermione, Ron, and the crowd had wanted to scream at Harriet to run, but their voices had seemed choked.
Then it reached for her, and Harriet began to hyperventilate. She seemed unable to move. Its long finger touched her forehead. There had been a flash of light, then just the image of Harriet on all fours had been seen.
After the incident, Harriet had obviously been shaken. She had looked frightened as she had looked around. Harriet never looked frightened and it had worried her friends. Shakily she had stood up. She took a deep breath and started to move forward again.
The whole encounter with the snake could not have taken more than five minutes, but it felt much longer on the Weasley's and Hermione's poor nerves.
The only one who did not appear anxious was Dumbledore. He would have to contemplate the event as it was certainly interesting, but he knew that it was just another clue in the mystery, not a threat.
"W-well that was something wasn't it," Bagman said with a shakily. "Um… let's turn our attention to Diggory. Oh, and look there, he is taking on a Cockatrice!"
The crowd turned their attention to cheering for Cedric. The Cockatrice was lunging, and he was countering perfectly. He managed to distract the cockatrice and made a move to go by, unfortunately, a root caught his foot.
"Oh, no! That's unfortunate, Diggory trips and the Cockatrice is on him again. Oh, and look that vine is actually devil's snare, how in the world did that get there? Oh, that's a nasty wound."
While Cedric was doing a good job fending off the cockatrice, it got a claw into his leg and got a good scratch. Fortunately, the devil's snare tried to wrap around the cockatrice as well, so the cockatrice was forced to back up. But it was a bit too late for Cedric as he was well and truly caught by the Devils Snare. It wrapped tighter covering his body and trapping his hands. Cedric tried to conjure fire but couldn't do the wand movement without a free hand. The only thing he could do was a simple flare of red sparks.
Flitwick appeared with Mr. Holly. Flames came out of the Professor's wand as he pointed it at the Devil's snare. Vines released Cedric and Flitwick turned to the cockatrice to scare it off.
Mr. Holly came over then and waved his wand. Soon the screen that held Cedric went black.
Hufflepuff and many others were groaning as their champion went down for the count.
"How unlucky! It was tripping on that vine, that did it I believe for the older Hogwarts champion. It really came out of nowhere! But isn't this something folk's only the youngest champion is left!"
Gryffindor let up in a cheer.
"So long as she can get to the cup, then she will be champion. If not, then all the champions are again let loose into the maze."
Kurm and Fleur who were watching from the medi tent, and being tended to by Madam Pomfrey, both blanched. They had had enough of dangerous mazes for the day.
"But Harriet is exceptionally close. By going past the Cerberus and the Runespoor she has put herself in the most direct path of the cup. Oh, and look now! She has come upon a sphinx."
And now there was one.
(1) Inspired by the new movie trailer Yesterday. Thought the idea of not knowing the Beatles was hilarious.
(2) Newt Scamander has two runespoors in his briefcase. One is much more massive than the regular seven feet long. It is my imagining that Dumbledore asked Newt if he had a magical creature to contribute to the tournament. And newt volunteered his Runespoor.
Thanks, everyone for sticking with the story and leaving me nice comments. I know it may be a little controversial to leave Cedric alive but I'm sticking to my guns. Hope it doesn't turn too many of you off the story.