Chapter 21: The Third Task

Fog loomed on the evening of the Third Task, the stands outside the entrance of the maze (constructed overnight) crowded by the students of the three schools; with special guests that were intended with sincere intentions — only to find that none of the Kiseki's family from Mahoutokoro arrived or even replied to their invitation to Hogwarts in support of their children. They were the ones who were the most likely to win, after all. However, oddly enough, they did not arrive. Not a single one.

Dumbledore noted it but said nothing.

Matsumoto was similar to a stone statue beside him. He knew better than to try. His stance beside Momoi was tense, the girl holding her clipboard with an analytic glare as she leaned against the stands, was enough to make anyone uneasy. To Harry, the girl was more than a manager — she knew things, Harry realized after a foolish Hufflepuff (Zacharias Smith) had tried to confess to her in front of the Kiseki, rudely commenting on her boys. The girl revealed nearly every secret of the prick, from his worst subject to his unusual choice of underpants. — she scared him, with the knowledge she could know. When questioned, the pink-haired witch merely smiled evasively, before saying it was a trade secret.

With a glance to the Headmasters, Momoi wrote a line on the clipboard before retreating past the stands to the tents for the teams, where they were getting ready. Pushing open the burlap entrance as well as Murasakibara's barriers for her entrance, Momoi scanned over all her boys. Akashi was all dressed, gear strapped and light blue cape over his shoulders as he was playing as their 'king', none better to direct them from above. Like all of them, his cherry wand was hidden in his possession, most likely in his sleeve as he preferred, seated at the spare beds with his broom beside him. On one of the benches, Murasakibara was busying himself with strapping fingerless gloves, having been requested to wear them for this Task — unlike his captain, the titan lacked a cape, surname stitched to the back like everyone else. Aomine looked cross as he tied combat boots to his feet firmly, annoyed that their uniform required longer sleeves and no shorts, however, was pacified when he had not requirement to wear a scarf or anything more. Kise was dressed the most similarly to the ace, both the only ones in sleeves that ended at the elbows and combat boots — the blonde given lighter gear, however, by Akashi's request. Midorima was ready as well, tying his lucky item of the day, a black tassel, to his belt loops as he wore an outer jacket like everyone but Aomine and Kise, clipped in his mid-section. Lastly, Kuroko adjusted his communicator over his ear, everyone else wearing one along with Momoi as they finished up.

"Any strange movements, Momoi?" Akashi questioned, as they all listened.

The manager shook her head. "Everyone is keen to see the Third Task, but nothing out of our expectations. Matsumoto-kocho is anxious."

"Nothing out of the ordinary." The captain smirked, amused at the stirrings that they caused indirectly. "And of the other Teams?"

"Hogwarts appears hopeful that if they could win this Task and have the same bonus as the Second Task, they could win — Durmstrang expressed the same sentiments, through the thoughts of Krum. Their respective 'kings' are Roger Davis and Ivan Poliakoff."

"It appears that you were correct as well, Shintarou."

Midorima huffed as he muttered that the redhead had the same predictions. "And the movements of Moody?"

Momoi's eyes narrowed. "Monitored."

"Most likely here to make sure that Potter is dead if he comes back." Aomine snorted.

"It does not matter. Just adhere to the plan, and we will improvise from there." Akashi cupped his cheek with his half-gloved hand, smirk deepening. "After all, I do not have to give you all instructions on what to do when the one who gave us all of this torment reveals himself, do I?"

From outside the tent, Matsumoto did not have to hear what they were speaking of to know that his students were ready. The glee in their eyes screamed absolute madness.

The hedge maze towered levelly mid-way from the height of the rings of the pitch, forcing the players to fly low and carefully. A reinforced barrier prevented them from going too high from the maze also unable to blast their way through the plant walls, making them confront what was in front of them while trying to navigate through the maze — Durmstrang communicated through Legilimency, Mahoutokoro used their ear-pieces, while Hogwarts was provided with a cross of the two — all approved before usage was granted. On three equidistant platforms were podiums for the kings, above the maze, each with a different design — the Durmstrang stand was constructed of heavy metals, simple in construction and reinforced with molten nails; Hogwarts' was of mahogany wood, warm yet stable as it was carved with light golden leaf at curved edges for an elegant varnish; lastly, Mahoutokoro's was carved of white jade, presented from a golden dragon's claws, jewels of every rainbow color on it's skin. Even without the elegant scripture that announced the name of the school, the difference was obvious to any creature who had eyes.

A similar one stood in the grassy opening of the entrance to the maze where they all were gathered, all nineteen of them in their respective teams, hovered by their respective Headmaster. As Flitwick silenced the band in the front of the stands, all took their seats as Dumbledore took the podium, nodding for all of them to stand before their entrance to the maze, marked by a colored flag.

"Earlier today, Professor Moody placed the Triwizard Cup deep within the maze — in the very center, where victory and glory rests with the cup. Now, as the Generation of Miracles…" A loud cheer from the Mahoutokoro stands sounded, the subordinates smirking as their superiors nodded at their support in their own way, followed by cheers for the other two schools when they were announced. "… are currently in first place, they will be the first to enter the maze; followed by Hogwarts and Durmstrang."

"The first person to touch the cup will be the winner!" Dumbledore boomed, followed by loud cheers and clapping. "I have instructed the staff to patrol the perimeter. Should, at any point, a contestant wish to withdraw from the task, he or she need only send up red sparks with their wands. The 'kings' of this Task will not be able to enter the maze, and are confined to their place at the platform — they will be notified if any of their players have withdrawn. Communications are open channel to their team only if desired."

Turning away from the podium, Dumbledore waved all the teams to gather. "Champions! Gather around. Quickly!"

Akashi stood half-step in front of his team, similar to Krum and Diggory as they did as instructed — the Headmaster of Hogwarts' expression grave and almost wary as he spoke. "In the maze, you will find creatures of the dark and deep — overcome them as splendidly you have done prior; as we all are aware. However, within these hedges, you'll face something even more challenging."

Dumbledore paused. "You see, people change in the maze. Oh, find the cup if you can. But be very wary, you could just lose yourselves along the way."

If one observed closely enough, one could see seven people flinch ever so slightly.

With those ominous words, Dumbledore dismissed them. "Champions, line up at your entrance! Kings, to your platforms!"

With a consecutive move, Akashi Seijuurou, Roger Davis and Ivan Poliakoff took off on their respective brooms, appearing before their podiums. And with a boom of the cannon, Murasakibara Atsushi entered the maze, the first. Within half an hour, all of them were in, other than Harry, the last and youngest of them all.

And with a kick off, Harry darted forward on his broom.

Quickly, the players realized that the brooms came with more problems than they did with advantages as flying low was difficult to control, left them defenseless, and had to pay attention to more than just watch was in front of them — therefore, many dismounted within the first turn within the maze, giving them the advantage of keeping a quick getaway on hand but at the same time, none of the disadvantages of being on a broom. Krum was stealthy, abiding his time as he trudged on, hiding the the shadows of the hedges to obscure his built figure. Luckily, he was lanky enough.

In terms of threats, the Japanese were the obvious ones — the ones ahead and the ones to regard with serious concentration. But Krum was not foolish enough to disregard the Hogwarts team so easily. Rolling his shoulders in anticipation, he sprinted on, trusting his vice captain to lead him the correct way.

A defeated vampire later (they were asked to try not to kill) Krum sprinted into a dead end, before letting out a string of Bulgarian curses. Before turning around, the Seeker felt a sixth sense to duck. Krum follows his instincts to dodge a blow to the neck from a hand charged with yellow magic — shivers danced at his spine, he would have been unconscious for sure if it had connected.

Backflipping to allow himself room, Krum met gazes with his new opponent.

Kise Ryota, Chaser of Mahoutokoro, smirked at him; receding his magic. "Good evening. Maybe I should have listened to Midorimacchi's Oha-Asa today. I was expecting to mess with those Hogwarts guys in this Task, not run into the likes of you so early."

"I thought the same." Krum replied in accented English — he was cornered. "Set up?"

The handsome blonde does not answer. "Akashicchi's orders." Stall.

"'Akashicchi'?" He needed to get to his broom at the mouth of the dead end.

Kise remained unmoved. "He is absolute." And with that, the Japanese attacked, giving him no room to follow with his thought of getting out of this trap. Copies of his form surrounded him with inhumane speeds, Krum barely able to dodge as he felt one punch to his back then a blow to his thigh, hits coming in rapid succession that he lost track; scrapes of near lethal strikes that could have stopped him cold. And that was not a possibility he was going to allow. Commanding his magic, Krum breathed heavily as red bolts of magic attacked from all sides from his vicinity, taking down all the Kise copies. The original whined softly before him, snapping his fingers before Krum could have the thought to retaliate — finding himself suspended by disc-like magic at his wrists and ankles. So, that was what all those copies and seemingly random hits were for. It was to cut off his magic reserves and restrict his wandless magic. Damn.

Kise got himself up, amber eyes burning. With a swift kick that promised broken fingers, the blonde disarmed the Seeker the old-fashioned way, knocking out the wand in his hand, round housing his leg to connect to his neck. Krum fell limp, the light in his eyes disappearing behind closing lids.

Grimacing at his unkempt appearance from falling and superficial cuts, Kise voiced his report. "Phase One is completed, Akashicchi. Krum is down."

"Well done, Ryota. Leave him and proceed to Phase Two — return to your second rendezvous with Daiki and take a left, then take your next left."

"Yes, Akashicchi." And the conversation was over.

Akashi turned his attention to his knight, who had encountered Montague and Wood going against an acromantula, who had apparently poisoned the former and the latter seemed to have a death wish. "Daiki."

"Yo. Wood concussed himself in mid-flight against one of my Stuns and Montague is knocked out by the poison. Phase One is a go."

Akashi hummed into the earpiece for a moment. "Return to your rendezvous with Ryota, Daiki. Exercise caution, I will not have you all present yourselves sloppily."

Aomine grunted a "Yes, mom." before ending the call.

The plan was going well so far as expected — things were not to get messy until Phase Three to Akashi's expectations in any case. Midorima was his newest piece but he was sure that his bishop would do well with the orders his king gave him, it was his rook he needed to care for after doing so with his most vulnerable pieces.

"Atsushi."

"Hai, Aka-chin." Murasakibara was relatively calm for someone who was in a barrier, surrounded by erklings. "Phase One is complete~ Two Durmstrang are down along with that green Hogwarts guy." Flint, Dimitrov, and Vukchanov. Shintarou did say that he glanced at the four-way combat. Apparently, his rook shot off harpoons of his magic to counter the jinxes and curses sent his way — no one had as much magical reserves as Murasakibara, after all. Trying out to out tire Murasakibara was like trying to outlive change.

"Well done, Atsushi." He praised. "Return to your rendezvous with Aomine, I will ask Shintarou to meet you there."

That left Potter, Johnson, Diggory, Zograf and Levsei to deal with. One for each of his pieces other than Potter, how fitting. Smirking ever so slightly, Akashi opened communications to all, before speaking — his army awaiting their king's orders.

Phase One was easy enough — eliminate as many monsters and opponents in your designated area, maximum of the latter being two — Midorima scanned his own with careful eyes before continuing. His was the newest, therefore, Akashi could not help him much other than record his trail for when Kuroko entered. But it was enough for now, their goal was not to win but trail after.

Taking a right, Midorima frowned as he found another dead end, calling his captain to inform him of his recent development, covered in acromantula blood. It was going to take forever to wash out the goopy substance — having been careful enough to not allow the blasted spider take a bite out of him but lacked the foresight of flying intestines. Ew. A loud shout took Midorima from his disgust, narrowing his eyes at the direction of the shout — most certainly, female — that broke it down to two persons: Alexei Levsei or Angelina Johnson.

"Stupefy!" Enemies were closer than they appeared. Midorima thought to himself as he brought up his defenses, the magic circle at his feet expanding as it disintegrated the Stun with ease — revealing the two girls in question, appearing to have teamed up to take him down. Flicking out his wand, the shooting guard lifted his glasses.

"Hm. Teaming up to counter our team, not a bad move to try." Midorima had that much to respect. But there was something wrong with their execution. As a team was only good if the opponent was worse than they were in terms of teamwork (they learned that the hard way) and there was none that had better teamwork than them — it was not the teamwork of which they were dependent on the other, but rather the teamwork of which they trusted each member to do well without looking or checking — they just knew that they would succeed and carry on. To go against them was a pipe dream. They could maybe try when they were old and senile…

"You go!" Alexei pointed behind him, indicating that Angelina corner him from his back and await for an opportunity, orders spoken in accented English. "I, here!"

As if I would allow such crude tactics. Midorima waved a hand, as ring of smoke erupted from the outer ring of the circle — hiding all of them in storm of teal smoke and fog. Jinxing Johnson behind him without needing to look back after she began to cough from the irritant in the gas, Midorima merely had to listen for the sounding thud as he faced Levsei. Unlike Johnson, she had the precaution of placing her hand over her face, guarding her from coughing at least for a bit.

"Do not bother." Midorima sniffed. "The gas can be absorbed through your eyes just as easily you breathe it in. Within fifteen minutes, you would be joining your friend."

Her eyes glared with a silent question. And of you?

"If you think of me inefficient enough to be affected by my own biological weapons, then you are more foolish than I thought." About to fire a Stun, Midorima suddenly heard a voice. Child, behind you! Turning with swifter than believable reflexes, the shooting guard activated his second trap — to see a mid-air Zograf a foot away from his form, ready to take him out if he had not activated it.

Recovering quickly with internal curses of carelessness, the bespectacled vice captain took out his remaining adversaries, knocking out Zograf with a hit to the abdomen and Levsei with a hit to her neck. Sweating and with a scape here and there (still covered in gigantic spider blood), Midorima kept his barriers up as he called Akashi.

At the first ring, he heard a "Shintarou."

"Levsei, Johnson and Zograf are down. Phase One has been completed here."

Akashi let out an amused hum. "That leaves us with Potter and Diggory."

"…It has only been an hour, Akashi."

"So, it has." The smugness in his captain's voice was dripping. "Proceed to Phase Two, Shintarou. Everyone else is in position, you will be meeting with Atsushi."

"Very well." That meant the bait took Aomine and Kise.

Alastor Moody, or Bartemius Crouch Jr. in disguise, cursed colorfully at the sight of Kise Ryota's superior stance over the defeated Krum, who was being collected by the vines in the hedge — magically induced to send the defeated members of the teams to the medic tents for immediate care. He expected Mahoutokoro to dominate the Task like they did in the prior Tasks but not this quickly.

In the shadows, Moody eavesdropped the conversation as he followed the blonde Chaser practically skipped to meet up with what was revealed to be the navy blue Chaser, who looked bored awaiting for the former. They spoke in their mother tongue as the Death Eater felt a pang of envy — these two were the symbolism of the pureblood greatness that his Lord spoke of. Young, aristocratic and accomplished; they could not allow such gifted children to be drowned in the filth of Mudbloods and Muggles — they were pure of wizard blood.

It was too much of a loss to have them die because they were fooled by the members of Hogwarts.

Therefore, it was with a heavy burden that he pulled out his wand on them.

With one arm over the blonde's neck, he did not hesitate to place the boy under the Imperius Curse. Dropping him, the Death Eater ignored the other Japanese boy's yell as the tanned male lunged for him, before turning to catching the blonde.

Giving him the opening he was waiting for, Barty Crouch Jr. muttered it once again, unaware of his victim's smirk.

"It is for your own good, son." He found himself saying, tongue snapping over his teeth. "To serve the Dark Lord, to bring him back and to allow the purebloods their justice!" Because what better to counter monsters than actual monsters?

"Akashi-kun." Kuroko's tone was unchanged to the unfamiliar ear.

"Tetsuya." Akashi was not one of those people. "What has aggravated you so?"

"Aomine-kun and Kise-kun have proceeded to Phase Two."

"I see." The captain was silent for a moment. "I will send Shintarou and Atsushi — I request that you make your way to the cup. It will not do if our phantom does not follow in Phase Three."

"Yes, Akashi-kun." A pause. "…It's almost over, Akashi-kun."

If one observed closely enough, the heterochromic eyes softened. "Yes, Tetsuya. It is almost over. But unfortunately, almost does not count."

"Then I will make it count."

Akashi smiled. "Then I look forward to it, Tetsuya."

Harry Potter felt the blood in his body pumping through his muscles faster than ever before, the pure adrenaline making his mind work faster than he thought possible as he took in the sight before him. The Triwizard Cup glowed down the center of the maze, victory a mere dash of several hundred meters as a whirlwind seemed to dance over the hedge, gesturing for the mortals to dance to the rhythm of the world's whims. But that was not what took his attention — the wind could have been nonexistent for all his obliviousness to it. No, what took his attention was the clashing Miracles in-between him and the cup.

Kise Ryota snarled curse after curse as he collaborated with Aomine Daiki, the source of the whirlwind as he fired powerfully charged bolts of blue lightning at the other side; making the perfect storm of offensive magic Harry had ever seen. In the opposing side, Midorima and Murasakibara took the barrage with little trouble as it appeared under the purple barrier as the Midorima seemed to be writing something in the grass of his magic circle. It had been going for a least five minutes.

Then with a boom, the barrier went down.

Kise recovered first, flying out of the green smoke with a grimace — the gas effecting his movements as he faced off against Midorima. Surrounding the bishop with copies of himself, the shooting guard countered with just as swift jinxes and curses; some making the copy dissipate and others transforming it into a harmless creature. The other clash was against the greatest offense against the greatest defense, as Aomine flew in strange and irregular patterns to take out Murasakibara, who had faster reflexes than Harry had ever though possible in such a tall person, dodging and countering by canceling the magic or firing off one of his harpoon-like projectiles from his shields.

"Th-This is chaos…" The whispered words took Harry from his fixation, turning to see a just as pale Cedric Diggory beside him.

Chaos it may have been. Harry thought to himself. But if they managed to get past without them knowing, they might be able to get to the cup.

When Harry proposed his obviously suicidal plan, Cedric voiced it. "You're insane, Potter."

A pause. "… Let's do it."

With a mad dead run, Harry ran after his captain, the both of them dodging rogue jinxes and nasty curses that killed or destroyed the earth that they previously stepped on. For the first few meters, they were making good progress until Midorima caught them. With a wave of his hand, tendrils of vines grew at their feet as they fell, pinning them down to the grass. But he was soon distracted by an attacking Aomine while Kise began to incant in Japanese, amber eyes seductive as they turned to Harry.

Slowly, the vines began to release him to Harry's surprise as he realized that Kise was not looking at him, he was speaking to the vines — prompting them to his release. Why?

But before he could think on it too much, he was quickly pulled up by Cedric, who pulled him out of the fray to the cup.

The last line of defense stood the tallest of the Kiseki, who managed to shove off the distracted Aomine from Midorima — knocking him out with a blow to the heel, not enough to be crippling but enough to stop moving for a while after injecting him with a pre-made sedative. Only Kise-chin was left and that Mido-chin's problem was what he wished he could do, but the plan said otherwise. Therefore, Murasakibara pulled Midorima away from Kise's barrage of charms that promised pain, some copied from yours truly, as Midorima readied the syringe. But that left the path to the cup wide open for Hogwarts and Cedric was anything but opportunistic.

Hope surged in Harry. He could do it! Hogwarts could win!

Running, Harry pulled his captain with him towards the cup, both grabbing it as they Portkeyed into victory. Or so they thought.

Before either of them could grab it, a cry stopped Harry while a vine stopped Cedric, who was dragged back to the Kiseki Civil War which was now Murasakibara sitting on an enraged Kise, as Midorima jammed in the damned sedative into Kise's arm.

"Go!" Cedric commanded, as Davis said the same in his ear at Harry. "Grab the cup and win this thing for us, Potter! GO!"

Harry glanced at the cup, regal and untouched, before looking at his pleading captain, doing his best to break off the vine with sheer force — his wand lost in the fray. In that moment, Harry knew what to do.

"Incendio!" The vine broke as three hands grabbed the cup.

"Akashi."

Akashi sighed softly, as he replied. "Report, Shintarou."

The tiredness in Midorima's voice was heavy as Akashi frowned at the map before him — only displaying four of his army. Where was Tetsuya? He was supposed to be pinpointing the location that the Portkey had been set for. "Aomine and Kise are waking up and will be fine in a few minutes since Crouch's Imperio was not powerful enough to use their gods against us — only basic on-hand magic. The gods are repairing the damage to them n—"

"Shintarou, where is Tetsuya?" A cold realization made Akashi smirk. Oh, Tetsuya. I should know better than to believe that you were well-behaved.

"Kuroko's…?! You don't see him?!"

"No. I don't." Akashi replied flatly, a plan already forming in his mind. I was right. Phase Three was where things were to go awry. Only the expectation was not to Tetsuya.

"Then… That idiot! Of all the times to go off on his own!"

A laugh escaped Akashi's lips as he listened to Midorima's shouting and subsequently, Aomine's when he heard of his shadow's whereabouts along with Kise's whining as Murasakibara's question silenced them all. "What do we do now, Aka-chin?"

"Why I thought you all knew." Akashi answered, amused. To think that it was our phantom that hated the fact we're going to lose more than we did — the arrogant Kiseki, who were punished for it. "We're going after our phantom. Proceed to Phase Three."

With a wide feral smirk, Aomine cracked his knuckles as Akashi's orders echoed in his head. Phase Three is more of your speed, Daiki. Destroy the maze and everything in it. Show the world why must cower before us. Wage war, my knight.