XXI – The Third Task and the Breakout
Everyone gathered around the Quidditch pitch, which was transformed into the final task, the maze. It was filled with challenges where the champions would have to overcome.
Harry went in first, followed by Viktor and then Fleur.
They were all determined to win the maze for the glory for their school.
"Go Harry!" The twins shouted together.
"Good luck!" Hermione called, not wanting to pick between Viktor and Harry, they were both very important to her.
Soon, a horn sounded and Harry dove into the maze – and immediately ducked the blast of fire. He swore and dropped to the ground and rolled – it was those blasted Blast-ended Skrewts – full sized one.
Damn it.
He knew they were a cross-breed that Hagrid has orchestrated, never thought they would be working to his detriment.
"Come on, come on, think, think." Harry told himself as he tried to remember the lesson with the Skrewts – of course, he was goofing off during the lesson with Ron so he tried to reason himself out of this situation with logic. "Fire crabs, manticore – unprotected underside. Ice? Would ice stun him? It might."
The Blast-ended Skrewt reared up and Harry fired a ice spell at the underside of the Skrewt and he froze and Harry darted as fast as he could past him.
He made it and soon the Skrewt was screaming in frustration that he was unable to kill the prey. Harry breathed heavily and felt relieved.
This is why of age students should be doing this stupid tournament, he thought to himself.
He suddenly felt quite cold and a shudder of fear coursed over him and he knew immediately what it was.
A Boggart.
Bugger.
He turned around and saw the Dementor floating towards him, he cursed and brandished his wand towards the boggart.
"Expecto Patronum!" He cried out, thinking of the happiest memory he had. The pure joy he felt when he knew he didn't have to go back to Dursleys, the embrace he got from Sirius, the Christmas they had where he got gifts and felt loved for the first time since his parents died. Someone who loved him since he was born and still loved him now. Unconditional love.
Light burst from his wand. A stag, like his father and a giant snake, both on the attack, the stag brandishing its antlers and the snake rearing up and lunging his teeth at the boggart. They attacked as one and destroyed the dementor.
Two patronusi? Something to think about when there is less danger, definitely.
He pressed forward and was engulfed in this golden mist.
"What the bloody hell?" He gasped as he felt he was in another world, where the gravity was reversed. He felt himself move to the sky, looking at the ground like it was the sky. It was the most extreme stage of vertigo that he thought he would ever feel.
He tried not to freak out, he had been upside down on brooms loads of times, he just put one foot in front of the other to get through the mist.
Once he reached the end of the mist, he was righted and he shook his head.
"That was bloody weird." Harry muttered and moved on, pressing on.
He went around the corner and encountered a creature he had not seen before, a female Sphinx.
There was a gorgeous Egyptian woman's head on a giant lion's body. She had sun-kissed skin, the Pharoah makeup that was traditional during that time, with the eyeliner and hair stringed together with gold beads. A golden crown encircled her head, with a serpent attached to the top.
"Apep?" Harry asked.
The Sphinx smiled at him.
"Very good. But that won't get you past me that easy. It's more difficult than that." She warned.
"Of course it is." He muttered, ignoring the Sphinx's growing smile.
"First think of the 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 middle and 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?"
"I hate riddles." Harry grumbled. He thought about the first line – someone who lives in disguise – who deals in secrets – a spy obviously. Whats the last thing to mend, middle of middle and end of the end. A D – it's the middle of middle and the last letter of mend and end. Sound often heard in a word search. That's tough. Okay sound it out. Spy d – Spied – Spider!
"You have three guesses." the Sphinx told him solemnly.
"Spider." Harry said.
"Correct, good luck Harry Potter." She bowed her head and moved out of the way.
"Thank you." He remarked as he moved on.
He turned the corner and of course it was Hagrid's pets. The Acromantulas.
He sighed and started fighting the giant spider – thank goodness he wasn't scared of them.
Eventually, it fell over, having gotten knocked out from Harry's blasting spell.
He sighed and rolled his neck, striding around the corner and ran into the three Heads of the schools and Ludo Bagman, who was grinning at him.
Harry looked at the heads.
Dumbledore raised his hands and waved his wand and the walls fell to the ground, the mist dispersed, Harry turned around and watched as cages enveloped all the creatures. Viktor wasn't far behind and Fleur fell to the ground out of the golden mist.
"The winner of the 1994 Triwizard Tournament is HARRY POTTER!" He declared and the stands went up in a chant.
"Potter! Potter! Potter!" They chanted.
Harry grinned as he shook Ludo Bagman's hand and walked back to the entrance where he was embraced by Sirius, who looked him all over and hugged him close.
"You'll have to tell me all about it, pup." Sirius gushed when he saw he wasn't hurt.
"Okay, but I'm exhausted." Harry told him, quite frankly.
"Don't worry, we have all summer!" Sirius chirped, cheering up Harry, who smiled wearily.
OoOoOoOo
Hermione clutched Viktor's hand as she walked him to his ship.
"I am sorry I have to go, Mia." He kissed her forehead.
"It's alright, I understand. Write me?" She asked.
"Of course I will, otherwise I will go insane." He teased.
"We wouldn't want that." She demurred.
"I will never forget you, Mia. You'll never be far from my mind." He pressed a kiss to her forehead again and wrapped her in a hug and she wrapped her arms around his middle, memorizing his scent even if he was going to see her this weekend, she wanted to remember every moment.
"I'll never forget you either." Hermione told him.
"Viktor!" A voice called.
"I must go. Goodbye for now, Mia." He looked over her one last time before releasing her and she smiled bravely and waved a goodbye to her first love.
She sniffed as she made her way back to the castle, Viktor's eyes following her the entire way. He was definitely not letting her go that easily, he didn't care if he had to fight her other suitors with his bare hands.
Hermione saw that Harry was waiting for her as she made her way to the castle.
"Oh, Harry. You didn't have to come out."
"I just wanted to see if you were okay." She smiled bravely but a few tears snuck out without warning. Harry wrapped her in a hug.
"I'll miss him so much." She cried.
"I know. But you'll see him this summer and you'll write. You'll be done with school before you know it." Hermione nodded and started walking into the castle.
She was excited that she was going to America – there was such different history there, it would be fascinating to do some research into the different practices that magical New York had versus London. She was very grateful that Sirius and Harry invited her to go on holiday with them.
Her biological parents sent her a letter telling her that they were going to Australia this summer. It was quite clear that she was not invited.
Which she was to be quite honest, grateful for. She didn't have to hide her books in muggle novels like she had to do quite a few times when studying over the summer.
Harry and Sirius liked her the way she was, so did Viktor so she needed to let her parent's toxicity go to the wayside and let them go. She was who she was and she didn't need to be fixed.
That was that.
OoOoOoOo
Draco met his mother at the train station, he was going to her chateau and then heading to Malfoy Manor to see the improvements.
But when he got there, he saw something was wrong. There were Aurors with his mother and she looked quite grave, as his siblings arrived as well to greet their mother.
"What's wrong?" Draco asked before the others.
"Dragon." She greeted each of the children, ignoring Draco's question.
"What happened?" He repeated. Narcissa bit her lip and looked at Kingsley behind her.
He cleared his throat.
"This morning Lucius Malfoy and the Lestrange brothers escaped Azkaban."
DUNDUNDUNNNNNN
We are getting into the ending part of this fic!
Progress Report:
Harry – Completed 4985 words – pending revision - I am pretty happy with it, but I could probably expand on a few things
Neville – WIP - ~900 words
Hermione – Outlined
Draco – Outlined (I'm most excited for this one but I must wait! I must!)