Draco used Crabbe and Goyle and their incredible girth to help Violet prepare for the final task. She tried all her spells: Impedimenta, Stupify, and Expliarmus. She used her jinxes and everything she had against those two. The nice thing was that the two of them could take it and then pop back up and do it again. As thanks for their help, each of the boys got a rather large gift of Honeydukes' chocolate at the next Hogsmeade.
The mood in the castle as they entered June was excited and tense. Everyone was looking forward to the third task which would take place a week before the end of term. Violet was practicing hexes at every moment. Sometimes, she practiced on helpless Hufflepuffs while she was wearing her cloak of invisibility.
The day of the task arrived to sunny, favorable weather and clear skies. Then, after one last hour of preparation, she braved her way down to the Great Hall when she heard people leaving for lunch and took a spot beside Millicent and watched her plate fill with food. She slowly ate as much as she had the stomach for, just enough to get her through the day.
Violet did not do any thinking as she shoveled food into her mouth. She barely recognized Draco with his hand on her shoulder as he tried to engage her in conversation. Finally, when she noticed, she smiled sweetly at him, leaned aback into his hand and touched her cheek to it briefly.
"Are you ready?"
Violet nodded. She was about to express her doubts and fears when a Ravenclaw student approached their table. He spoke quietly, fearful of her, "Violet Potter is needed to meet with the other Champions outside in the back courtyard."
Immediately, she got up from the Great Hall. At the same time, the other Champions followed to the courtyard. Violet got out there and she saw Cedric and his parents just inside the door. Viktor Krum was over in a corner, conversing with his dark-haired mother and father in rapid Bulgarian. He had inherited his father's hooked nose. On the other side of the room, Fleur was jabbering away in French to her mother. Fleur's little sister, Gabrielle was holding mother's hand.
There was no one for her. Violet spent a quiet afternoon with no family, while the others visited with theirs. That evening she watched Dumbledore during the Evening Feast. His eyes twinkled at her, a gesture that said, "You have chosen incorrectly, and I won't do a thing to help you." Violet just tilted a mug of tea toward him with a smile and finished her food.
When the feast was over, Dumbledore stood up, and everyone went out to the Final Task.
They walked in silence onto the Quidditch field, which was now completely unrecognizable. A twenty-foot-high hedge ran all the way around the edge of it. There was a gap right in front of them: the entrance to the vast maze. The passage beyond it looked dark and creepy.
Five minutes later, the stands had begun to fill; the air was full of excited voices and the rumbling of feet as the hundreds of students filed to their seats. The sky was a deep, clear blue now, and the first stars were starting to appear. Hagrid, Professor Moody, Professor McGonagall, and Professor Flitwick came walking into the stadium. They approached Bagman and the other champions. They were wearing large, red, luminous stars on their hats, all except Hagrid, who had his on the back of his moleskin vest.
"We are going to be patrolling the outside of the maze," said Professor McGonagall to the champions. "If you get into difficulty, and wish to be rescued, send red sparks into the air, and one of us will come, and get you, do you understand?"
The champions nodded.
"Off you go, then!" said Bagman brightly to the four patrollers. Then, they all walked in different directions to station themselves around the maze. Bagman now pointed his wand at his throat, muttered, "Sonorus," and his magically magnified voice echoed into the stands.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the third and final task of the Triwizard Tournament is about to begin. Let me remind you how the points currently stand. In first place is Violet Potter with ninety-seven points of Hogwarts School. She will enter first." The cheers and applause sent birds from the Forbidden Forest fluttering into the darkening sky.
"In second place, Cedric with 85 points will enter second." This time you could hear the full thunder of the school, all except Slytherin.
"In third place, Viktor Krum from Durmstrang with 80 points. He will enter third." More applause!
"In fourth place of Beauxbatons Academy, Miss Fleur Delacour. She has fifty points." More applause!
"So, on my whistle, Violet!" said Bagman.
"Three – two – one –"
Violet turned from the wild mass of people towards the looming hedge maze. She watched as it parted and a thick fog misted out. With a deep breath she advanced inside.
The towering hedges cast black shadows across the path as Violet walked inside. As she entered, it seemed like the sound of the crowd had silence. She felt almost as if she was underwater again. She pulled out her wand and said, "Lumos!"
Almost immediately Violet came to a fork. Violet remembered the reading Milli had done about mazes. Following Milli's advice, she put her right hand on the right wall. Then at the fork, she turned right keeping her hand on the right wall.
A few minutes into the path, Violet heard the whistle blow. She knew that Cedric was entering the maze. When the fork loomed, Violet didn't think, she just kept her right hand on the maze and turned right. She cast a quick point me, and her wand span in her palm a few times before it settled due north. She seemed to be heading the right direction.
Violet slowly gazed ahead, very concerned that it was as quiet as it was. The silence was broken by a third whistle. Krum was in.
Violet felt like she was being watched. The maze was growing darker with every passing minute as the sky overhead deepened to navy. She reached another fork. She turned right again.
The path ahead was empty, but then she turned a corner. "DUDLEY?" She gasped.
"Shut it, Freak," he said as he punched his hand into his other hand. Violet smirked at it. Imagining Dudley on a diet she said, "RIDIKKULS!" Suddenly, Dudley was a lot skinnier and frightened of his shadow. Then, Violet moved on quickly and quietly, listening hard, her wand held out.
Twice she found herself nearly lost, but then, came out with a right-hand turn. Then, Violet saw an odd golden mist ahead of her. It had some kind of enchantment. She wondered whether she might be able to blast it out of the way.
Then, she decided to just walk into the mist. The world instantly turned upside down. Violet was hanging from the ground, with her hair going into her eyes. It felt as though her feet were glued to the grass, which had now become the ceiling. Below her the dark, star-spangled heavens stretched endlessly. She felt as though if she tried to move one of her feet, she would fall away from the earth completely.
Think, she told herself, as all the blood rushed to her head, think …
She shut her eyes, and thought, so she wouldn't see the view of endless space below her and pulled her right foot as hard as she made her way from the grassy ceiling.
Immediately the world righted itself. Violet fell forward onto her knees onto the wonderfully solid ground. She felt temporarily limp with shock. She took a deep, steadying breath, then got up again and moved forward. She paused at a junction of two paths. She took the right path again.
The cup was somewhere close by, and it felt close. She kept moving for ten minutes straight ahead. Then, as she came around a corner, she found herself facing a Blast-Ended Skewrt.
The giant creature that Draco had complained about from his Care of Magical Creatures stood before her. It was enormous.
It was ten feet long, and it looked more like a giant scorpion than anything. Its long sting was curled over its back. Its thick armor glinted in the light from Violet's wand.
"IMPEDIMENTA!" Violet yelled. The spell hit the skewrt right in the eyes. Panting, Violet pushed herself away from it and ran past it. She took another right and then she saw movement again. The beam of her wandlight hit an extraordinary creature, one which she had only seen in picture form, in her Monster Book of Monsters.
It was a sphinx. It had the body of an over-large lion: great clawed paws and a long yellowish tail ending in a brown tuft. Its head however was that of a woman. She turned her long, almond-shaped eyes upon Violet as she approached. She raised her wand, hesitating. She was not crouching as if to spring, but pacing from side to side of the path, blocking her progress. Then, she spoke in a deep, hoarse voice.
"You are very near your goal. The quickest way is past me."
Violet nodded. "Okay."
"You must answer my riddle on your first guess, and I will let you pass. Answer wrongly – I attack. Remain silent – I will let you walk away from me unscathed."
Violet nodded her head again. "I would like the riddle."
The sphinx sat down upon her hind legs, in the very middle o the path, and recited:
"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?"
Violet nodded. "A spider!" she answered.
The sphinx smiled broadly. She got up, stretched her front legs, and then moved aside for her to pass.
"Thank you!" said Violet as she dashed forward.
Violet walked with as much gusto as she could. And just then, Violet was face to face with the largest spider she had ever seen. It was an Acromantula. It started to scuddle toward her.
Violet amplified her magic and then shouted with all her strength, "Stupify!"
It hit the spider hard, and it keeled over sideways, flattening a nearby hedge, and strewing the path with a tangle of hairy legs. Violet made her way carefully past it and then stepped forward. Violet walked into an open space where the Triwizard cup was. "That was it?" She asked around her.
She walked over to the plinth where the cup stood. She reached out her hand over the cup's gleaming handles, and then grabbed it.
Instantly, Violet felt a jerk somewhere behind her navel – portkey. Her feet left the ground. She did not unclench the handle as it pulled her upward in a howl of win and swirling color.