Excuse any mistakes, it is really really late.

This story is set back in the timeline of The Mummy Returns, so here's a basic rundown of the Harry Potter timeline in relation to this chapter.
1922: Harry Potter is born to Lily and James Potter.
1923: Harry is a year old and his parents are murdered by Voldemort.
1927: Harry is five and goes to Egypt with his distasteful relatives and becomes Kedar.
1933: Harry turns eleven and starts Hogwarts.
1936: Harry's fourth year at Hogwarts, current year.

ShadeDancer

Disclaimer: Not even in my dreams do I own Harry Potter…believe me, I've tried, but the thought of lawsuits deters all such dreams. I also don't own anything recognizable from either the Mummy or the Mummy Returns.

Chapter 26: Prize

Eshe proved to be a good conversationalist and had no problem slithering under the occasional hedge to scout out the surrounding terrain. Kedar had been very firm though when he had refused her help in defeating the various obstacles they came upon—having Eshe as a guide and companion was one thing, but allowing her to fight with him crossed into the boundaries of honor. Unfortunately it soon began to get too cold for Eshe to keep going with him.

"You should turn back to your mate and children." Kedar urged, recasting a mild warming spell on Eshe so she could make it back. "Your help has been invaluable but I will not risk your life for a mere contest."

There was an interesting gleam in Eshe's eyes as she flicked her tongue across the back of Kedar's hand. "Should you ever need, hiss my name. I will hear."

Then Eshe was gone, Kedar had the oddest sense that she had been testing him as they navigated the maze, slithering back to her nest as Kedar turned to face the next obstacle—a dementor. He had sense the creature before Eshe, his perceptions more attuned to recongnize the dementor's miasma, and had known his serpentine companion would not have survived the unnatural cold that emanated from the spectors. Bringing up memories of racing Ardeth across the desert on horseback, memories of Amisi and her kiss, Kedar used them as a shield.

"Expecto Patronum!"

A pearly image of Sadiki burst forth from his wand, prancing and tossing his mane before charging the dementor. The air shifted, becoming warmer as the patronus collided with the dementor, and Kedar now faced the boggart he had expected—if it had been a real dementor, putting them in the maze would have constituted murder since only a very small percent of the adult wizarding population could cast a successful Patronus charm.

"Riddikulus." Kedar easily finished off the boggart, ignoring the images of horror it tried to become in order to frighten him—he had seen too much in his lifetime to give in to false fear.

Kedar pressed on as the unnatural chill faded from the air and the passages soon began to get shorter, becoming more confined, and he knew he was getting closer to his goal. It was tempting to try and blast his way through the hedges, but he could feel the spells lying withing the green bushes and knew he would pay heavily for trying. Rounding another corner Kedar found himself facing another obstacle—a sphinx. Immediately he gave a slight bow, knowing better than to offend such a powerful and ancient being.

"Greetings Majestic One. I must say the edifice erected in the sands of my homeland does not do your kind justice."

Of course Kedar knew his truthful flattery would not get him out of answer the required riddle, but it never hurt to be polite to a Sphinx—they had nasty and uncertain tempers. The Sphinx blinked.

"A sand-dweller. You are far from home. To you my proposition is thus: Answer my riddle and I shall allow you to pass. Do not answer and I will allow you to back off. Answer incorrectly and we shall fight. You look a worthy opponent."

Kedar bowed to acknowledge the compliment though he never took his eyes from the Sphinx, all the while aware that time was ticking by. He also knew he would not be taking the third option even if the Sphinx considered him to be worthy enough to fight instead of going for a straight maiming—to fight the Sphinx would mean that one of them would have to die.

"Tempting as it is to test our wits in true battle, I will accept your riddle for I have no actual quarrel with you and thus not reason to fight what would be a deadly battle."

The Sphinx sighed.

"So honorable. It is good that you are though for I am also prohibited to do more than deliever a warning slash and bar the way. It would make for a poor fight. My riddle is thus:

First think of a person who lives in disguise,
Who deals in secrets and tells naught but lies.
Next, tell me what's always the last thing to mend,
The middle of the middle and the end of the end?
And finally give me the sound often heard,
During the search for a hard-to-find word.
Now string them together and answer me this,
Which creature would you be unwilling to kiss?"

There were a lot of creatures Kedar knew he would be unwilling to kiss, but he also knew that the Sphinx would take anything he said from this point on as his answer. The riddle was also ridiculously easy and Kedar suspected it had been fed to the Sphinx to be used in this situation so the students weren't mauled. Despite the high level of risk involved in the tournament so far, the Champions weren't actually supposed to get gravely hurt.

"A spider." Kedar answered confidently, swearing that the Sphinx almost pouted when he gave the right answer.

"Correct." She announced. "You may pass safely and with my blessing."

Kedar bowed and slid past quickly. "It was a pleasure to meet you."

"And you sand-dweller. Have a care for what lie is deeper in this maze. It is not the obstacles that you will have to fear, but the prize."

Kedar was so intent on making up for lost time and getting away from the Sphinx before her boredom and temper could take over that he only vaguely heard her parting words as he rounded the next corner, completely missing out on whatever she said after warning him of further obstacles in the maze. He almost went back to discover what she had said at the end, but it was probably only more Sphinx talk that would slow him down. He was so close he could practically sense the trophy. He couldn't wait to claim it and get back to Amisi.

… … … … …

"Watch out!" Cedric yelled from where he lay on the ground, the warning coming a bit late as Kedar was bowled over by a large, foul-smelling creature.

Kedar cursed himself for being an idiotic fool and not checking his surroundings thoroughly enough when he had seen Cedric down on the ground. Crushing pain engulfed his leg as the creature—it looked like a spider albeit with pincers—latched on to his calf. Pushing through the pain Kedar twisted, dagger in hand, and raked it across the creature. His attempt did little damage to the creature's hard body, but it annoyed the spider-like thing enough along with the spell Cedric's had cast that it dropped him. Just in time Kedar was able to turn the fall into a roll that saved his body from serious injury and he sprung up ready to fight.

Now the creature was torn between prey and that was how Kedar liked it; it gave him enough time to recover his breath to throw his knife so he could draw attention away from Cedric. With the same precision that had allowed him to nail the button to the tree Kedar took out one of the spider's many eyes. Now he was the threat and Cedric would have the chance to pull himself to safety.

"Oy!" Cedric yelled as the spider came after Kedar. "Over here you ugly git."

The spider reared, probably not so much from Cedric's voice or insult, but from the spell the Hufflepuff had sent right after. It changed directions and went after Cedric again, the other boy at least thankfully on his feet again and not lying so helpless on the ground.

"Stupid bloody English bravery." Kedar cursed as he threw his own spell to pull the spider's attention back to him. "I was distracting it so you could escape. You're injured."

"So are you." Cedric retorted. "We'll have a better chance of defeated this thing if we work together."

"Or perhaps this game of tag will enrage it even further." The clicking of the creature's claws had gotten more frantic and harder with its anger. "I hope it doesn't have reinforcements to call upon in the maze."

"Never thought of that." Cedric looked concerned for a moment, his look quickly turning to one of concentration as he dodged a hairy spider leg. "It's the only one I've seen though and I feel like I've walked around the whole bloody maze. It was like there was a confusion spell blocking the paths and the obstacles never seemed to stop."

Kedar tumbled to the side, pain spearing up his leg, and frowned. Most of the maze had seemed too empty to him, the obstacles not much more than show. It had worried him then and now what Cedric was saying worried him even more, but they were in the middle of a fight now and it wasn't the time to analyze such things.

"Worry about that later. This things shell is so hard. Our spells aren't working."

Cedric was panting now, not used to moving about so much during a fight. "Viktor was casting a spell on it that did that. There was something wrong with him. His eyes—it was like he was being controlled. I knocked him out when he turned on me, but then the spider caught sight of me. I left him in a side room. He should be alright."

"The eyes are weak, my knife hit home." Kedar pointed out. "On three…one…two…three!"

"Reducto!"

"Confringo!"

Cedric's Reductor Curse and Kedar's Blasting Curse hit the spider's numerous eyes one right behind the other and made a ruin of what they considered the creatures face, burrowing through the shell and destroying the softer flesh beneath. For a moment Kedar was sure it hadn't been enough, but then the spider's legs folded beneath it and is crashed to the ground, blood and other fleshy bits gushing out toward them. Kedar got up a shield in time, but Cedric wasn't so lucky.

"Ugh." The other boy groaned. "Just what I needed."

Kedar chuckled slightly as he sunk to the ground after twirling his wand to ensure a clear spot of grass. He needed to get off his leg for a moment. Surprisingly enough Cedric came and sat next to him.

"Not going on?" Now that the battle was over Kedar could see the passageway they were in opened onto an area in which he could see a gleam of gold. "You can easily make it before I do."

Cedric shook his head. "I'll wait for you if that's alright. This is just a bit too weird for me. I swear I've passed through here before but I never saw the cup on the other times. Besides, without you I'd have been a goner. You could have left me and claimed the cup but you didn't. I think it's yours."

Kedar shook his head; self-sacrificing Hufflepuffs. "We'll grab it together then. It'll still be a Hogwarts victory. Besides, if things really are like you say I'm not sure I want to go it alone either. It'll be safer to watch each others backs. I don't care about the cup any longer. For a while it seemed really important, that I claim it and get back to Amisi, but the pain has cleared my head and I know Amisi won't care if I bring it to her or not."

Cedric looked down at Kedar's leg. "You really need to get that looked at. I don't know any healing spells but we can use our cloaks to stop the bleeding."

Kedar looked Cedric over. The other boy had spelled most of the creature's blood off of him but he still didn't look too clean. "I think I'll pass. Laffaaf."

Kedar tapped his wand against his injured leg as he muttered the spells and bandages wrapped themselves comfortably around the wound, staunching what bleeding there had been. Cautiously he stood with Cedric's house to test his handiwork. It held and gave him enough support that he could put enough pressure on his leg to hobble; now that the fight was over it seemed like all the adrenaline had left his body leaving him with nothing to push on with.

"Ready to get out of here?" Cedric asked. "I really hope that thing takes us straight out of here or at least opens a safe passageway."

Kedar chuckled softly. "You and me both. Next time I'm going to refuse to compete under grounds of forgery. We should probably grab Viktor."

Cedric shook his head wearily as he put his shoulder and neck beneath Kedar's left arm to help support the injured Gryffindor. "I don't think I'd make it if we did. We'll send someone back for him. Neither of us is in good enough shape to get him out of here if we run into anything else."

Reluctantly Kedar agreeded and the two of them hobbled toward the waiting gleam of the trophy.

"Together then?" Kedar asked Cedric again when they reached the trophy without mishap, wanting the other boy to know that he would still back off.

"Yes." Cedric was set on beign stubborn. "For Hogwarts."

"For us." Kedar countered. "They didn't suffer through this. They got to sit on nice comfortable benches and watch."

"Three…two…one!"

Together Cedric and Kedar grabbed the prize.

Posted On: December 2, 2008