55
Her BG Card Becomes Doubly True
Time: Several Weeks Later
Place: Quidditch Pitch
"It looks like an improvement to me," said Susan, looking out over the field. "It also looks as though they've compressed space here someplace. Was the field this big before?"
In place of the normally flat field the teams played Quidditch over, the place had been greatly modified.
"Good eye to spot that, just what I would expect from you, Susan," said Ludo, walking up. "And you're all here, good. So, you've had a chance to look it over, I'm sure you all realize by now what the final task will entail?"
"It should be a-maze-ing," said Viktor.
"I'm sure- oh, yes! Clever. Indeed, it will be a maze."
I hate it already.
"We have to get through a maze?" asked Fleur. "But that is quite easy, you just keep your hand on one wall."
"Not exactly. Firstly there will be obstacles in the maze, such as creatures or traps. Next, the task will not to be to find your way through the maze, but rather to find the cup, which will be placed at random inside it."
"I hope it's not too random, it could be around the first turn," said Susan.
Ludo laughed. "Right you are. No, it'll be placed by a person, not with magic. We were initially going to just have it be in the center, but with Susan's uncanny ability to, uh, outthink the challenges, we've had to make a few adjustments."
"Why not just keep it in the center?" asked Harry.
"Well, for one thing, you can all fly. So between now and then you could easily just fly over the maze, sketch or memorize it, and take the shortest path to the center. With the cup being placed somewhere random, we negate that."
"I applaud your efforts," said Susan, impressed. "Now you're starting to think like a Felton."
"I'll take that as a complement, I guess. Oh, and your restrictions, Susan. I've been told you can just turn yourself into a ghost like form and just walk though stuff?"
Susan felt a pang of sadness, thinking about Myrtle. She nodded.
"We would appreciate it if you didn't do that. There's no way you can wish the cup into your hand, because you won't know where it is, correct?"
"That's correct."
"Then that's all right. Obviously you can't just fly over the walls, or open one of your holes in space to get a bird's eye view."
"What about a creature made of magic?" she asked, thinking about Magically Ally. If I created another creature with a different casting of the spell that could fly, I could have it look and lead me.
"You mean like a Patronus? No, we won't allow any magical constructs that can comb the maze for you." He gave a knowing smile. "That includes your ring, Susan."
"You just know all my secrets, don't you, Mr Bagman?" she asked coyly.
"No, I really don't. Any other questions?"
"Can I fly if I don't go above the tree line?"
"You mean to get over an obstacle or something? I guess, though the others don't have brooms."
"I won't use a wand, so we can call it even."
He gave her a skeptical look. "I suppose you can fly if you want."
Yes! My flying speed is way higher than my walking speed.
"Except you seem really pleased about that for some reason, so I'm going to retract that, and say no flying is allowed."
"Come on! Give me something to work with here!"
"I am, I'm not requiring you to be blindfolded."
And a good thing too, I need to see my target for most of my magic.
"I see your point."
"Good. Anything else?"
"In what order will we enter the maze?" asked Fleur.
"You will all enter simultaneously. As we still have no idea how to score Susan's performances we can't have you enter in terms of points. So we're going to grow four entrances, and you'll all go in at once. Whoever gets the cup first wins."
"So why did we do all the first and second tasks?" asked Viktor sourly.
Ludo hesitated, then brightened. "To qualify you for the third, of course. Couldn't have just anyone running the maze, now could we?"
No one looked like they believed him.
"Sorry about that," said Susan.
That night, Susan thought about the maze.
My being directionally challenged won't matter much if there's no destination in mind. It's like Fleur said, follow one wall and you'll be fine in a maze. That's how I got out of the maze that became my base, after all. The problem will be retracing my own path. They may have compensated for the "following the wall" trick with different kind of maze then I dealt with last time. I don't want to be stuck going in circles. Wait a second…
She got out her book of magic, and looked up a spell she had used before.
Path Tracer, grade 3. "See the path the target has taken recently." Why couldn't I be the target? Wouldn't that give me real time information about where I've been? The line would trail from me, and I could see if I was going in circles or not.
Susan immediately used Creation to create a flat metal disk the size of a coin, and loaded Path Tracer into it with Spell Symbol. She flipped it in her hand, humming to herself. That problem's solved. I love being a Natural Magician. And with that in mind, I don't have enough XP to raise any important skills because there's always new magic to be learned. So I should probably use a bunch of it up learning new magic!
It never hurts to be prepared, after all.
The trouble is, Hypnotic Field has certainly proven its worth, but that assumes I have some way of dealing with what I've captured. With that dragon I could have waited until help arrived. In the maze, that's going to be a problem. I can't keep a couple of grade 7 spells going to keep whatever horrors are inside from further chasing me. I could Shrink them, but that's just trading a grade 7 spell for a grade 6 one. Hardly an improvement. I suppose I could learn Sleep, that's only grade 3. They couldn't resist, the description even says "unable to make any rolls" which would mean resistance checks.
A very evil grin spread across Susan's face as she continued reading.
"Any damage will break a subject out of the spell." But what if there was a way to get the benefits of the Sleep spell, make sure they couldn't wake up, and recharge my energy at the same time? Oh wait, there is such a spell, it's called Energy Drain. They can't roll to resist that, either. I drain them of enough energy to drop them to -ENDurance, so they go unconscious. Even if I get too much and it starts causing damage, snapping them out of the spell, all they'll be able to do is fall over at that point. And it's only a grade 5 spell? Sign me up!
At least, I hope it would work similarly, if Harry was forced to do a thousand jumping jacks in one sitting, he probably would pass out. So that should be the same for them or for me, right?
So Susan learned Energy Drain five minutes later, and wondered if she should save her remaining 6 XP or get one more spell.
That's two successes, I may need them in the maze.
She paused.
Wait, why do I care? I didn't even want to be in this stupid competition.
Oh, right, because at the end of the maze is the confrontation with the person that put our names in, and the dramatic reveal of what this has all been about. I mean, it's obvious, right?
And so the day of the tournament arrived. Susan blearily found herself being shaken wake by someone, and remembered her Deep Sleeper weakness. She went back to sleep.
Icy cold water splashed into her. Susan jerked awake, yelling.
"My goodness, you weren't kidding. You are hard to wake up," said Professor McGonagall.
"Professor?" asked Susan, blearily trying to focus.
"Get dressed. Quickly. I'm sorry to wake you like this but something terrible has happened. Go to the headmaster's office immediately."
She turned and left Susan confusedly staring at her.
Where's Sparkle, why couldn't she wake me up. I like Awaken a lot better than Conjure Icy Cold Water.
Susan hurriedly got dressed, looking out the window. It was a nice day, with the sun shining down through happy, white, puffy clouds.
I bet it's going to be a wonderful day, Susan lied to herself. Full of things going right, in every way they can!
Susan met Sparkle on the way to the Headmaster's office.
"Do you know what's going on?" asked Susan.
"All I know is some shimmering cat thing came and found me, said to go to the headmaster's office, and disappeared."
"Super. On the day of the tournament? This can't be good."
She used her password to open the door, and stepped in. A few familiar faces and some unfamiliar ones looked over at her.
"No time for introductions," said Albus, standing. "I'm afraid I have bad news for you Susan. There's no way to soften this blow, so I'll tell you right out. Your mother has been abducted."
"What?" asked Susan. She hadn't been expecting that.
"Open a portal to your home and I'll explain."
Susan shook her head, trying to clear it. "Why-" She started envisioning symbols and her kitchen instead. Everyone stepped through the Teleportal and looked around.
"This way," said Albus, leading them into the living room.
How does he know the layout of my house? What's that?
Along the wall, in the same glowing, silvery type as was left behind in Harry's vault, hung the words:
Lose the tournament and she dies.
Win and you both go free.
"Mom?" Susan shouted, desperately dashing from one room to another.
"She is not here," said Albus sadly. "We've checked quite throughly."
The others dispersed, obviously looking for clues, and casting various forms of magic with their wands.
Susan ignored all this, running up and down stairs calling for her mother.
"Where is she? Who took her?" Susan demanded, grabbing Albus' robes.
"We were hoping your magic would tell us that."
"Oh, right. Not thinking so well right now. Sorry. Just… just a second."
Susan got out her book of magic, turning to Descry Creature and looking it over again. She started casting, but Sparkle ran over with a hair scrunchy.
"Good idea," said Susan, starting the casting over. The scrunchy disappeared, and Susan was dismayed to get the same result as what she got trying to tell where Peter was.
She slammed the book in frustration. "They've got her locked off, like Peter. I can't find her."
Albus looked worried. "I see," he said. "Our magics told us she has been gone almost a day at this point."
"How did you even know about it?"
"All the champions' families are invited to watch the third event, and so your mother was included. Someone from the ministry came just moments ago to bring her to the castle. He found the door broken open by force, and these words upon the wall."
"The door? Fine. Time Window." She specified the present, and started rewinding. She saw a flash of motion and went into normal playback: the ministry man peer inside, wand at the ready. He gaped in horror at the words on the wall, then closed the door again. She went back to rewinding, and when there was another flash of motion she started it playing normally again.
She watched in horror as her mother went to the door, which was blown open by magic. Nothing was there outside, however, but a spell went off and Stacy fell over, unconscious.
"That's no fair! My invisibility goes away if I cast an offensive spell!" she said with outrage.
She watched as the words appeared, and her mother's body was levitated away. She could see out the door that once away from the house her mother simply vanished.
Great, I can't use Path Tracer then either.
"It seems," said Albus, "That whoever put your name in the Goblet of Fire didn't want you throwing the tournament at the last minute."
"But I can't imagine they would simply allow me to walk away if I won. They wouldn't have gone so far as to abduct my mother in that case!"
"I agree. Sadly, it seems you have become the bait and the person most likely to survive when the trap closes. You'll have to be, for I fear you shall be inside it, and cut off, once you win."
"Unless these are the actions of someone really desperate, like someone made a huge bet on me to win. And they're just coming up with a little insurance."
"Let us hope that will be the case."
"It isn't. It was him."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Because only he could create a spell that will block my Descry Creature. Someone who would bet on me, like Ludo for example, wouldn't know how to do that."
"That does make a certain amount of sense. I'm sorry to spring this on you like this. I know you must be worried."
"You have no idea. I don't think Peter and his boss are the type to go serving their hostages tea and biscuits."
"But I can almost guarantee she is a hostage, still, at this point. For one your magic did not say she was dead, and why charm a dead body against detection?"
"To keep me wondering."
"Agreed. But the second point is, I think they want something from you. They will use your mother to try and get it."
If Susan wasn't so distraught here she might have come up with a brilliant plan of using the shrink spell to shrink herself and Sparkle to a size able to ride in Albus' pocket. He would then be Shape-shifted into her, and they would cast the magic to make it look like she was alone, and running the maze. That would fool the perpetrators. Once they revealed themselves, Albus could reveal himself, arrest them, and march them into the ministry for trail. Problem- Solved. Too bad she's not thinking straight at the moment, it would have been a very good plan.
Albus, of course, can't come up with plans like that because as powerful as he is, strictly speaking he's an NPC.
"So now what? We just have the final event as normal?"
"The words imply you must win, not just finish the tournament. If we call it off, or tell the others to do less than their best, I'm afraid that will be breaking the restriction they have placed on us."
"There must be something we can do!"
"I can only think of one thing- win."
"I'm coming with you," said Sparkle, two hours later. Susan was pacing the Headmaster's office, awaiting any word of her mother being found. After all, they may have been so obsessed with me not finding out, they made some elementary mistake a wanded spell would discover.
"What?"
"In the maze. I'm coming with you."
"Of course you're coming with me! You think I'm crazy? I'm not going to go in there without all the firepower I can muster."
"As long as that's clear. And stop pacing, you'll only get your 5% energy back during light activity after all, and you're pacing pretty strenuously there. I know you used a lot of energy opening portals and Time Window and casting Descry and all that."
"I'll be fine. First monster I see is going to get a one-two combo of Hypnotic Field and Energy Drain."
"You learned Energy Drain?"
"Yeah, just last night. In fact, how much XP do you have? You should look for some spells to learn if you have spare XP."
"Good idea. Let me see the book."
"This Combust spell, you know that, right?"
"Yeah."
"Just curious. I was thinking if we were fighting wizards, destroying their wands would be a nice start, and end, to the battle. So I was thinking Destruction, but wands are made of wood."
"But they could probably be spelled to not burn. Peter knows I can set things on fire, after all. Even if the wand itself couldn't have a spell cast on it, I bet a bracelet of No Oxygen could be created and worn on the wand hand. That would keep it from catching fire."
"You have a point. Destruction just blows crap up. I'll keep looking."
"Attract Magic might be fun. Turn any spell cast at us back on the caster!"
"Except that's the same problem as Reflection, we don't know what their casting checks might be. Their skill could be measured from one to a hundred for all we know."
"Oh, right."
"What cards do we have? We must have gotten new ones."
"Oh yeah." They both get out their sheets. "I got some nice combat cards, a Power Overwhelming which could come in handy given how I cast spells, a Missed Me, very nice for combat, and an Adrenaline Boost giving me 1/8 my energy back. Lame, I'll take the 2 XP." The card vanished and 2 points appeared on her card.
"I have some interesting ones," said Sparkle. I'll turn in my What a Rush because if a cat is increasing a physical stat, something is really, really wrong. I'll take the XP instead." That happened. "As for my other two cards, I'll get two for one, with card 40, Get 'em While They're Hot, and then take that card back and play it again, Sam, with 38, Gimme Gimme! That leaves me with Extra Action, Unfailing Resolve, Critical Strike and… ugh, Mutiny."
"Play it, I dare you."
"Uh, no, I don't think the companion will betray her master, thank you."
"Good choice."
"We can play cards on other people, right? Think we could play it on Peter if we see him, make him betray Voldemort?"
"I don't think it works like that."
"Pity."
"Okay, I got it."
"What did you decide?"
"With the extra XP I got from the What a Rush card I can learn two spells: Destruction and Elemental Line: Ether."
"Elemental Line, huh?"
"Yeah. Imagine snaking a line across a doorway as a trap, or surrounding a bad guy with a twisty circle of lines he has to cross multiple times to escape from. Being Ether it has a chance to make the target into a ghost temporarily, or shunt them into Purgatory forever! What's not to like? It was either that or Line of Protection but I think this one is better."
"That would be another way to non-lethally take someone down. I like it."
"Glad you approve. Now it's time for some KNOwledge checks."
Sparkle got a 15 and a 13, enough to learn both spells, and they both went back to waiting for any news.
Which they did not receive, and that evening, both went down to the playing field with Albus. Sparkle was in her fairy shape, peaking out of pocket of Susan's robe. Susan had Magic Immunity, Magical Ally, Darksight, Acceleration, and Energetic Accumulation loaded into her bracelet. She was going to activate most of them once the task began, to be maintained until she was safely standing back outside the maze. Her friends were waiting for her.
"Where have you been all day!?" asked everyone.
"Sorry, I can't talk about it," Susan replied.
"Headmaster Dumbledore said you were preparing for the maze and shouldn't be disturbed. Is everything all right?" asked Hermione. "You've never prepared this long for anything!"
"Everything will be fine," said Susan, wishing she had put points into Deception rather than Persuasion.
"Good luck," said Ron. "We'll be cheering for both of you."
"Thanks," said Susan simply. She went over to her starting position, and the others looked over at her, concerned.
Harry shrugged and went over to his. Magical screen floated over the maze, showing each person and slowly floating so each could be seen by everyone.
Ludo announced the task would begin, and the cannon fired.
All four raced into the maze.
"Darksight, Acceleration, Energetic Accumulation," Susan said, touching each of her charms in turn. She pulled out her coin and said "Path Tracer," and was relieved to see a line extending from where she had been when she looked over her shoulder. She tossed the coin, it didn't matter anymore.
Whoever came up with Spell Symbol should given a medal. I'd kiss them even if it was guy!
Now to find the competition, and eliminate it.
