Chapter 28
I only froze for a few seconds before I took off running right for the glowing Triwizard Cup. I was about one hundred feet away when something seemed to hit my feet and made me trip. I got back up but this time Oscar Ivorio was running right alongside me. I tried to take longer strides than him with my longer legs.
Oscar had been pushing himself too hard. He was still pretty banged up from the second challenge and after the entire maze he was pretty much beat. He was careless. Like me, he just wanted to get this over with. I, however, was paying more attention to what was happening beneath my feet. I saw the root of the hedge suddenly shoot out. I jumped over it agilely. Oscar tripped right over it, twisting his ankle.
For a second I paused. I looked back at where Oscar lay on the ground, beating it with his fist. He tried to get up but his ankle caused him too much pain. I saw a long gash on his other leg. He looked up at me with sweat dripping down his face. He tried to smile but it came out as more of a grimace.
"Go get it, Rory-Lion," he said, using the nickname all the older students at Durmstrang used to call me when I was younger. "Durmstrang still wins, right?"
I managed a smile for the first time in days before I began running toward the Triwizard Cup again. I stopped when I was right in front of it. The glow emanating from it washed over my entire body. I stared up at it in awe. This was about to be mine, I was about to have it, hold it in my hands. I was about to be crowned the winner of the Triwizard Tournament.
I looked back. Oscar was no longer there. A red spark had gone up as I had been running toward the trophy. I reached up tentatively. I held my hands in the air for a few seconds. Finally, I wrapped my fingers around the cold silver handles of the Triwizard Cup.
