Chapter 22- The Third Task

"So Dumbledore reckons Voldemort's getting stronger again as well?" Myari whispered.

Everything Haiden has seen in the Pensieve, nearly everything Dumbledore had told him and shown him afterward, he had now shared with Harry, Hermione, Draco, Myari and Luna - and, of course, with Sirius, to whom Haiden had sent an owl the moment he had left Dumbledore's office. The group sat up late in Harry and Haiden's shared bedroom, Harry looked around at the group. Hermione was sitting next to Haiden with her forehead in her hands, staring at her knees, Myari and Luna were huddled together with Luna leaning on Myari looking, and acting, as if all of this information wasn't new to her, and Draco was looking worriedly at him.

Harry looked away from them to look into the darkness, that surrounded their bed. So Voldemort was going to feed him to his familiar? Was this a part of Dumbledore's plan? Was this vision of Haiden true or had Dumbledore fabricated it somehow? Or had Haiden misunderstood it? Visions were not always clear cut.

"Rita Skeeter." Hermione muttered after not speaking for ten or so minutes.

"How can you be worrying about her now?" Myari asked in confusion.

"I'm not worrying about her." Hermione said to her knees. "I'm just thinking . . . remember, awhile back, she said 'I know things about Ludo Bagman that would make your hair curl.' This is what she meant, isn't it? She reported his trial, she knew he'd passed information to the Death Eaters. And Winky too, remember . . . 'Ludo Bagman's a bad wizard.' Mr. Crouch would have been furious he got off, he would have talked about it at home."

"Yeah, but Bagman didn't pass information on purpose, did he?" Myari asked, Hermione shrugged.

"And Fudge reckons Madame Maxime attacked Crouch?" Draco asked, turning to look at Haiden.

"Yeah, but I think he's only saying that 'cause Crouch disappeared near the Beauxbatons carriage."

"You know he's only accusing her because she has giant blood, and she doesn't want to admit it-" Myari started.

"Of course she doesn't!" Hermione cut in sharply, looking up. "Look at Fudge, jumping to conclusions about her, just because she's part giant. Who needs that sort of prejudice? I'd probably say I had big bones if I knew that's what I'd get for telling the truth." Hermione looked at her watch. "We haven't done any practicing!" She said, looking shocked. "We were going to do the Impediment Curse! We'll have to really get down to it tomorrow! Come on, Harry, Haiden, you two need to get some sleep."

"It's too late for you guys to try and make it back to your dorms, stay, sleep here tonight." Harry said, magicking the bed large enough to fit all of them. They all quickly slid under the covers and got settled in for the night. As Harry laid down with his back against Draco's chest, snuggling in his warmth, Harry knew that he could not let Voldemort, or Dumbledore, kill him. He would fight, he would not leave his brother or Draco alone.

~Burn Me Into Your Memory~

Draco and Hermione were supposed to be studying for their exams, which would finish on the day of the third task, but they were putting most of their efforts into helping Harry and Haiden prepare, mostly Haiden.

"Don't worry about it," Hermione said shortly when Haiden pointed this out to them and said he didn't mind just practicing with Harry for awhile, "at least we'll get top marks in Defense Against the Dark Arts. We'd never have found out about all these hexes in class."

"Good training for when we're all Aurors." Draco said excitedly, attempting the Impediment Curse on a wasp that had buzzed into the room and making it stop dead in midair.

The mood in the castle as they entered June became excited and tense again. Everyone was looking forward to the third task, which would take place a week before the end of term. Haiden was practicing hexes at every available moment, Harry made sure of it.

Tired of walking in on Harry, Haiden, Hermione, Draco (and occasionally Luna and Myari), all over the school, Professor McGonagall had given them permission to use the empty Transfiguration classroom at lunchtimes. And with Harry's great way of teaching, Haiden soon mastered the Impediment Curse, a spell to slow down and obstruct attackers; the Reductor Curse, which would enable him to blast solid objects out of his way; and the Four-Point Spell, a useful discovery of Hermione's that would make his wand point due north, therefore enabling him to check whether they were going in the right direction within the maze; and Harry taught him a Locate Person spell, a spell that would help him locate Harry if they were to ever get separated in the maze. Haiden was still having trouble with the Shield Charm, though. This was supposed to cast a temporary, invisible wall around himself that deflected minor curses; Hermione managed to shatter it with a well-placed Jelly-Legs Jinx, and Haiden had wobbled around the room for ten minutes afterwards before she had looked up the counter-jinx, having refused Harry's offer to do it for her.

"You're still doing really well, thought," Hermione told Haiden encouragingly, looking down her list and crossing off those spell they had already learned, as Harry sat on the window seal, and looked out the window. He had been planning to look out at the grounds absentmindedly, but Pansy Parkinson caught his attention. She was standing in the shadow of a tree below, Crabbe and Goyle were with her. Crabbe and Goyle seemed to be keeping lookout; both were smirking. Pansy was holding her hand up to her mouth and speaking into it.

"What are you doing?" Harry muttered.

"What is who doing?" Draco asked shocking Harry who had been so focused on Parkinson that he hadn't realized Draco had made his way to him.

"Parkinson." Harry said nodded his head out the window.

"What's going on?" Haiden asked and him and Hermione made their way over to the window. "She looks like she's using a walkie-talkie."

"She can't be," Hermione said, "I've told you, those sorts of things don't work around Hogwarts. Come on, Haiden," She added briskly, turning away from the window and moving back into the middle of the room, "let's try that Shield Charm again."

~Burn Me Into Your Memory~

Sirius was sending them daily owls now. Like Hermione, he seemed to want to concentrate on getting them through the last task before they concerned themselves with anything else. He continually reminded both of them, in every letter, that whatever might be going on outside the walls of Hogwarts was not their responsibility, nor was it within their power to influence it. And this was constantly getting on Harry's nerves.

If Voldemort is really getting stronger again, he
wrote, my priority is to ensure your safety. He
cannot hope to lay hands on you two while you
are under Dumbledore's protection, but all the
same, take no risks: Concentrate on getting
through that maze safely, and then we can turn
our attention to other matters.

Harry's nerves mounted as June the twenty-four drew closer, but they were not as bad as those he had felt before the first task. For one thing, he was not going to be alone this time. For the another thing, he was confident in his brother's ability, they had done everything in their power to prepare Haiden for this task. And for the last thing, this was the final hurdle, and however well or badly they did, the tournament would at last be over, which would be an enormous relief.

~Burn Me In Your Memory~

Breakfast was a very noisy affair at the Gryffindor table on the morning of the third task. The post owls appeared bringing Harry and Haiden a good-luck card from Sirius. It was only a piece of parchment, folded over and bearing a muddy paw print on its front, but Harry could tell that Haiden appreciated it all the same. A screech owl arrived for Hermione, carrying her morning copy of the Daily Prophet as usual. She unfolded the paper, glanced at the front page, and spat out a mouthful of pumpkin juice all over it.

"What?" Draco, Haiden, and Myari asked as everyone in their group stared at her.

"Nothing." Hermione said quickly, trying to shove the paper out of sight, but Myari grabbed it. She stared at the headline and said, "Oh hell no! Not today! That-that old cow!"

"It's about me, isn't it?" Harry asked.

"No." Myari said

"Then it's about me." Haiden said.

"Why would you think that?" Myari asked in an entirely convincing tone. But before Haiden or Harry could demand to see the paper, Pansy Parkinson shouted across the Great Hall from the Slytherin table.

"Hey, Potter! Potter! How's your head? You feeling all right? Sure you're not going to go berserk on us?" Parkinson was holding a copy of the Daily Prophet too. Her gaggle of Slytherin followers began to snicker, twisting in their seats to see Haiden's reaction. Harry notice the other Slytherins looking terrified and scooting away from her and her followers.

"Let me see it." Harry said, reaching over and snatched the paper before Myari could hide it. Harry turned it over and found himself staring at a picture of Haiden, beneath the banner headline:

Haiden Potter
"Disturbed and Dangerous"

The boy who defeated He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named
is unstable and possibly dangerous, writes Rita Skeeter,
Special Correspondent.
Alarming evidence has recently
come to light about Haiden Potter's strange behavior,
which casts doubts upon his suitability to compete in
a demanding competition like the Triwizard Tournament,
or even to attend Hogwarts School.

Potter, the Daily Prophet can exclusively Reveal, regularly
collapses at school, and is often heard to complain of pain
in the scar on his forehead (relic of the cure with which You
Know-Who attempted to kill him). On Monday last, midway
|midway through Divination lesson, your Daily Prophet reporter
witnessed Potter storming from the class, claiming that his scar
was hurting too badly to continue studying.

It is possible, say top experts at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical
Maladies and Injuries, that Potter's brain was affected by the attack
inflicted upon him by You-Know-Who, and that his insistence that
the scar is still hurting is an expression of his deep-seated confusion.

"He might even be pretending," said on specialist. "This could be a
plea for attention."

The Daily Prophet, however, has unearthed worrying facts about
the Potter twins that Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts,
has carefully concealed from the wizarding public.

"Harry can speak Parseltongue, and I am positive that Haiden can
speak it as well," reveals Pansy Parkinson, a Hogwarts fourth year.
"There were a lot of attacks on students a couple of years ago, and
most people thought Harry was behind them after they saw him
loose his temper at a dueling club and set a snake on another boy.
It was all hushed up, though. But both of them has made friends with
werewolves and giants too. We think they would do anything for a bit
of power."

Parseltongue, the ability to converse with snakes, has long been considered
a Dark Art. Indeed, the most famous Parselmouth of our times is none
other than You-Know-Who himself. A member of the Dark Force Defense
League, who wished to remain unnamed, stated that he would regard
any wizard who could speak Parseltongue "as worthy of investigation.
Personally, I would be highly suspicious of anybody who can converse
with snakes, as serpents are often used in the worst king of Dark Magic,
and are historically associated with evildoers." Similarly, "anyone who
seeks out the company of such vicious creatures as werewolves and
giants would appear to have a fondness for violence."

Albus Dumbledore should surely consider whether boys such as this
should be allowed to compete in the Triwizard Tournament. Some fear
that the Potter twins might resort to Dark Arts in their desperation to win
the tournament, the third task of which takes place this evening.

"Well, now we know what she was doing by the trees." Harry said lightly, folding up the paper. Over at the Slytherin table, Parkinson, Crabbe, and Goyle were laughing at them, tapping their heads with their fingers, pulling grotesquely mad faces, and waggling their tongues like snakes.

"How did she know your scar hurt in Divination?" Draco asked. "There's no way she was there, there's no way she could've heard-"

"The window was open." Haiden said. "I opened it to breath."

"You were at the top of North Tower!" Hermione said. "Your voice couldn't have carried all the way down to the grounds!"

"Well, you're the one who's supposed to be researching magical methods of bugging!" Haiden snapped. "You tell me how she did it!"

"I've been trying!" Hermione snapped back. "But I . . . but . . ." An odd, dreamy expression suddenly came over Hermione's face. She slowly raised a hand and ran her fingers through her hair.

"Are you all right?" Myari asked, frowning at her.

"Yes." Hermione said breathlessly. She ran her fingers through her hair again, and then held her hand up to her mouth, as thought speaking into an invisible walking-talkie. Haiden, Myari, Draco, and Harry looked at each other. "I've had an idea." Hermione said, gazing into space. "I think I know . . . because then no one would be able to see . . . even 'Moody' . . . and she'd have been able to get onto the window ledge . . . but she's not allowed . . . she's definitely not allowed . . . I think we've got her! Just give me two seconds in the library - just to make sure!" With that, Hermione seized her school bag and dashed out of the Great Hall.

"We've got our History of Magic exam in ten minutes!" Draco called after her before turning to look at Haiden. "She must really hate that Skeeter woman to risk missing the start of an exam. What will you two be doing in Binns's class - read again?" Exempt from the end-of-term tests as a Triwizard champion, Harry and Haiden had been sitting in the back of every exam class so far, looking up fresh hexes for the third task.

"S'pose so," Haiden said shrugging his shoulder; but just then, Professor McGonagall came walking alongside the Gryffindor table toward them.

"Harry, Haiden, the champions are congregating in the chamber off the Hall after breakfast." She told them.

"But the task's not till tonight!" Haiden said, accidentally spilling scrambled eggs down his front, afraid he had mistaken the time.

"I'm aware of that, Potter." She said. "The champions' families are invited to watch the final task, you know. This is simply a chance for you to greet them." She moved away. Haiden gaped after her.

"She doesn't expect the Dursleys to turn up, does she?" He asked Harry and Draco.

"I don't know." Harry said.

"Me either." Draco said. "I better hurry or I'm going to be late for Binns. See you later." Draco said before kissing Harry and leaving.

Harry and Haiden finished their breakfast in the emptying Great Hall. Harry saw Fleur Delacour get up from the Ravenclaw table and join Cedric as he crossed to the side chamber and entered. Krum slouched off to join them shortly afterward. Harry finished and stood up, looked over at Haiden who was just sitting there. Harry could tell that Haiden really didn't want to go and either see the Dursleys or no one there waiting for him.

"Look, Haiden, even if they did or did not come, it doesn't mean they are your only family. You've got me, Severus, and Remus, and I know I will be there and I'm positive that Severus will be there too." Harry told Haiden who looked up at him in shock. "Just keep that in mind." Haiden smiled and got up. The two of them walked across the Hall and opened the door into the chamber.

Cedric and his parents were 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 her mother's hand. She waved at them, who waved back, grinning. Then he saw Severus, Remus, Mrs. Weasley, and Bill standing in front of the fireplace, beaming at them, well Remus, Mrs. Weasley and Bill were beaming at them, Severus looked annoyed.

"Surprise!" Mrs. Weasley said excitedly as Harry smiled broadly at them as him and his brother walked over to them. "Thought we'd come and watch you boys!" She bent down and kissed Haiden on the cheek.

"You guys all right?" Bill asked, grinning at them and shaking their hands. "Charlie wanted to come, but he couldn't get time off. He said you were incredible against the Horntail, Harry."

"And of course I wouldn't miss the chance to come and check up on my pups." Remus said hugging each of them.

"I have no idea why I'm here, I see both of you every day." Severus told them earning a playful glare from Remus, an annoyed look from Mrs. Weasley, and laughs from Bill, Harry, and Haiden. Fleur Delacour, Harry noticed, was eyeing Bill with great interest over her mother's shoulder. Harry could tell she had no objection whatsoever to long hair or earrings with fangs on them.

"This is really nice of you." Haiden mutter to Mrs. Wealsey. "I thought for a moment - the Dursleys -"

"Hmm." Mrs. Weasley said, pursing her lips as Severus's eyes flashed dangerously and Remus glared into the distance. This was always their reactions whenever anyone mentioned the Dursleys around them.

"It's great being back here." Bill said, looking around the chamber (Violet, the Fat Lady's friend, winked at him from her frame). "Haven't seen this place for five years. Is that picture of the mad knight still around? Sir Cadogan?"

"Oh yeah." Haiden said, who had met Sir Cadogan the previous year.

"And the Fat Lady?" Bill asked.

"She was here in my time." Mrs. Weasley said. "She gave me such a telling off one night when I got back to the dormitory at four in the morning -"

"What were you doing out of your dormitory at four in the morning?" Bill asked, surveying his mother with amazement. Mrs. Weasley grinned, her eyes twinkling.

"Your father and I had been for a nighttime stroll." She said. "He got caught by Apollyon Pringle - he was the caretaker in those days - your father's still got the marks."

"Fancy giving us a tour, Harry, Haiden?" Bill asked.

"Yeah, sure." Haiden said, and they made their way back toward the door into the Great Hall. As they passed Amos Diggory, he looked around.

"There you are, are you?" He said, looking Harry and his brother up and down. "Bet you're not feeling quite as full of yourself now Cedric's caught you up on points, are you?"

"What?" Harry asked.

"Ignore him." Cedric said in a low voice to them, frowning after his father. "He's been angry ever since Rita Skeeter's article about the Triwizard Tournament - you know, when she made out you were the only Hogwarts champion."

"Didn't bother to correct her, did they?" Amos Diggory said loud enough for them to hear as they started to walk out of the door with their family. "Still . . . you'll show them, Ced. Beaten Haiden once before, haven't you?"

"Rita Skeeter goes out of her way to cause trouble, Amos!" Mrs. Weasley said angrily. "I would have thought you'd know that, working at the Ministry!"

"Says the person who actually believed her." Harry muttered darkly under his breath. Remus laid a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it. Mr. Diggory looked as though he was going to say something angry, but his wife laid a hand on his arm, and he merely shrugged and turned away.

Harry had a very enjoyable morning walking over the sunny grounds with Remus, Bill, and Mrs. Weasley (Severus had been able to escape with the excuse that he had classes to attend to), showing them the Beauxbatons carriage and the Durmstang ship. Mrs. Weasley was intrigued by the Whomping Willow, which had been planted after she had left school, and reminisced at length about the gamekeeper before Hagrid, a man called Ogg.

"How's Percy?" Haiden asked as they walked around the greenhouses.

"Not good." Bill said.

"He's very upset," Mrs. Weasley said, lowering her voice and glancing around. "The Ministry wants to keep Mr. Crouch's disappearance quiet, but Percy's been hauled in for questioning about the instruction Mr. Crouch had been sending in. They seem to think there's a chance they weren't genuinely written by him. Percy's been under a lot of strain. They're not letting him fill in for Mr. Crouch as the fifth judge tonight. Cornelius Fudge is going to do it."

They returned to the castle for lunch.

"Mum - Bill!" Ron said, looking stunned, as he joined the Gryffindor table, for once not carrying when Draco and Myari sat down by Harry. "What're you doing here?"

"Come to watch Haiden and Harry in the last task!" Mrs. Weasley said brightly. "I must say, it makes a lovely change, not having to cook. How was your exam?"

"Oh . . . okay." Ron said. "Couldn't remember all the goblin rebels' names, so I invented a few. It's all right," he said helping himself to a Cornish pasty, while Mrs. Weasley looked stern, "they're all called stuff like Bodrod the Bearded and Urge the Unclean; it wasn't hard." Fred, George, and Ginny came to sit next to them to, Ginny taken this chance to sit next to Haiden.

"Are you going to tell us -?" Haiden asked when Hermione sat down across from him. Hermione shook her head warningly and glanced at Mrs. Weasley.

Harry, Haiden, Remus, Bill, and Mrs. Weasley whiled away to afternoon with a long walk around the castle, and then returned to the Great Hall for the evening feast. Ludo Bagman and Cornelius Fudge had joined the staff table now. Bagman looked quite cheerful, but Cornelius Fudge, who was sitting next to Madame Maxime, looked stern and was not talking. Madam Maxime was concentrating on her plate, and Harry thought her eyes looked red. Hargid kept glancing along the table to her.

There were more courses than usual, but Harry, who was starting to feel really nervous now, didn't eat much, and neither did Haiden. As the enchanted ceiling overhead began to fade from blue to a dusky purple, Dumbledore rose to his feet at the staff table, and silence fell.

"Ladies and gentlemen, in five minutes' time, I will be asking you to make your way down to the Quidditch field for the third and final task of the Triwizard Tournament. Will the champions please follow Mr. Bagman down to the stadium now." Harry and Haiden got up. The Gryffindores all along the table were applauding them; the Weasleys, Remus, Hermione, Draco, Myari, and Luna all wished him good luck, and he headed off out of the Great Hall with Cedric, Fleur, and Viktor.

"Feeling all right, Haiden, Harry?" Bagman asked as they went down the stone steps onto the grounds. "Confident?"

"We're okay." Harry and Haiden said together as they reached out and grabbed the other's hand at the same time. A bit of Harry's nerves left him at the feel of his brother's hand in his. As long as they were together, they would be all right.

They walked onto the Quidditch field, which was now completely unrecognizable. A twenty-foot 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 into 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 and approached Bagman and the 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," Professor McGonagall said 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." Bagman said brightly to the four patrollers.

"Good luck, Haiden, Harry." Hagrid whispered, and the four of them walked away in different directions, to stations themselves around the maze. Bagman now pointed his wand as 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! Tied in first place with eighty-five points each- Mr. Cedric Diggory and Mr. Haiden and Harry Potter, all of which are of Hogwarts School!" The cheers and applause sent birds from the Forbidden Forest fluttering into the darkening sky. "In second place, with eighty points - Mr. Vikor Krum, of Durmstrang Institute!" More applause. "And in third place - Miss Fleur Delacour, of Beauxbatons Academy!"

Harry could just make out Mrs. Weasley, Bill, Remus, Ron, Hermione, Draco, Myari and Luna applauding Fleur politely, halfway up the stands. He nudged Haiden and nodded his head towards their group, and, once Haiden had spotted them, Haiden waved up at them, and they waved back, beaming at them.

"So . . . on my whistle, Haiden, Harry, and Cedric!" Bagman said. "Three - two - one -" Harry and Haiden tightened their grip on each other's hands and took off into the maze.

"The towering hedges cast black shadows across the path, and, whether because they were so tall and thick or because they had been enchanted, the sound of the surrounding crowd was silenced the moment they entered the maze.

Harry used his free hand to reach into his hidden pocket to grab his wand (having promised himself to use it in this final task to try and not draw any more attention to himself) only to find it missing. Harry's heart dropped, he knew he had had his wand just moments before they entered the maze, he had made sure of it. He gave a silent curse, someone had stolen his wand without him knowing it.

"Lumos" Both Haiden and Cedric said at the same time. The three of them walked together until they reached a fork about fifty yards in. They looked at each other.

"See you." Haiden said before leading Harry down the left one. Harry heard Bagman's whistle for the second time. Krum had entered the maze. They sped up. Their chosen path seemed completely deserted. They turned right, and hurried on, Haiden was holding his wand high over his head, trying to see as far ahead a possible. Still, there was nothing in sight. Bagman's whistle blew in the distance for the third time. All of the champions were now inside.

Harry made sure nothing was following them as the old feeling that he was being watched was upon him. The maze was growing darker with every passing minute as the sky overhead deepened to navy. They reached a second fork. Harry and Haiden looked at each other, wondering if they should split up or stick together. They tightened their hold on each other, silently asking, begging, the other to stay with them. They smiled at each other, the decision having been made.

"Point Me." Haiden whispered to his wand, holding it flat in his palm. The wand spun around once and pointed toward his right, into solid hedge. That way was north. They needed to go northwest for the center of the maze. The best they could do was take the left fork and go right again as soon as possible.

The path ahead was empty too, and when they reached a right turn and took it, they, once again, found their way unblocked. Harry didn't know why, but the lack of obstacles was unnerving him. Surely they should have met something by now? It felt as though the maze were luring them into a false sense of security. Then he heard movement right behind them. without thought, Harry spun them so that he was positioned in between Haiden and whatever was behind them and put up a barrier while falling into a fighting stance.

A beam of light from Haiden's wand fell upon Cedric, who had just hurried out of a path on the right-hand side. Cedric looked severely shaken. The sleeve of his robe was smoking. "Hagrid's Blast-Ended Skrewts!" He hissed. "They're enormous - I only just got away!" He shook his head and dove out of sight, along another path. Keen to put plenty of distance between themselves and the skrewts, Harry and Haiden took off again. Then, as they turned a corner, they saw . . . a Dementor gliding towards them. Twelve feet tall, its face hidden by its hood, its rotting, scabbed hands outstretched, it advanced, sensing its way blindly toward them. Harry froze as memories of third year began to flood his mind.

"Expecto Patonum!" Haiden yelled. A silver stag erupted from the end of Haiden's wand and galloped toward the Dementor, which fell back and tripped over the hem of its robes... that knocked Harry out of his memories. Dementors don't trip or stumble!

"That not a Dementor!" Harry shouted, advancing in the wake of Haiden's silver Patrounus. "That's a Boggart! Riddikulus!" There was a loud crack, and the shape-shifter exploded in a wisp of smoke. The silver stag faded from sight. Harry took a deep breath and shoved the memories that the Dementor shaped Boggart had drug up into the back of his mind, he would talk to Krysten about them once him and Haiden had gotten out of his damned maze. Once he was able to focus back on his task of helping him and Haiden out of the maze, he grabbed Haiden's hand and they continued to move through the maze as quickly and quietly as they could, both of them listening hard, Haiden's wand held high once more.

Left . . . right . . . left again . . . Twice they had found themselves facing dead ends. Haiden did the Four-Point Spell again and found that they were going too far east. They turned back, took a right turn and saw an odd golden mist floating ahead of them.

They approached it cautiously, Haiden pointing his wand's beam at it. This looked like some kind of enchantment. Harry went to dispel the mist when a scream shattered the silence. "Fleur!" Harry yelled. There was silence. Both him and Haiden stared all around them. What had happened to her? Her scream seemed to have come from somewhere ahead. Harry took a deep breath, gathered his magic, closed his eyes and pictured a sword in his hands, and swung. When he opened his eyes again, the mist was gone and Haiden was looking at him in amazed wonder.

"What was that? What did you just do." Haiden asked as Harry took his hand once more and took off running. Harry ignored him, too focused on finding Fleur. What had she met? Was she all right? There was no sign of red sparks - did that mean she had got herself out of trouble, or was she in such trouble that she couldn't reach her wand? They came to a junction of two paths. Harry made them take the right fork with a feeling of increasing unease . . . yet at the same time, a dark voice kept whispering One champion down... two more left to go...

The cup was somewhere close by, and it sounded as though Fleur was no longer in the running. They had gotten this far, hadn't they? What if they actually managed to win? Fleetinlyg, and for the first time since he'd found him and his brother as a champion, he saw again that image of him and Haiden, raising the Triwizard Cup in front of the rest of the school. . .

They met nothing for ten minutes, but kept running into dead ends. Twice they took the same wrong turn. Finally, they found a new route and started to jog along it, Haiden's wandlight waving, making their shadows flicker and distort on the hedge walls. Then they rounded another corner and found themselves facing a Blast-Ended Skrewt.

Cedric was right - it was enormous. Ten feet long, 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 Haiden's wand, which he pointed at it.

"Stupefy!" Haiden said before Harry could stop him. The spell hit the skrewt's armor and rebounded, Harry pushed Haiden to the ground while creating a barrier around Haiden, before batting the rebounded spell away. The skrewt issued a blast of fire from its end and few forwards toward him.

Harry let his mixed martial arts training kick in, he dodged the blast, he gathered his magic and sent a wave of it at the skrewt with a round house kick. The wave of magic hit the skrewt knocking it onto its back. Harry gathered his magic once more and sent it through the earth with a stomp of his foot, he then directed his magic to flow through the earth towards the skrewt, mixing with the natural magic in the ground, before, with a simple hand gesture, directed the magic to shoot straight into the air sending the skrewt up and out of the maze.

Harry took a deep breath while letting go of his magic, releasing the barrier around Haiden in the process. "When did you learn to do that." Haiden asked him as he got up off the ground.

"This is the first time I've been able to put that into action. Come on, lets continue." Harry said taking his brother's hand. The two of them took off once more. They took a left path and hit a dead end, a right, and hit another; forcing them to stop, hearts hammering, Haiden performed the Four-Point Spell again, backtracked, and chose a path that would take them northwest.

They had been hurrying along the new path for a few minutes, when Harry heard something in the path running parallel to his and Haiden's that made him stop dead.

"What are you doing?" Cedric yelled. "What the hell d'you think you're doing?" And then Harry heard Viktor's voice.

"Crucio!"

The air was suddenly full of Cedric's yells. Horrified, Harry began sprinting up his and Haiden's path, trying to find a way into Cedric's. When none appeared, Harry blasted a hole in the hedge through which both him and Haiden ran through. Looking to his right, Harry saw Cedric jerking and twitching on the ground, Krum standing over him. When Krum looked up, Harry saw that his eyes were white, he was being controlled. Haiden pointed moved to point his wand at Krum as he turned and began to run.

"Stupefy!" Harry yelled. The spell hit Krum in the back; he stopped dead in his tracks, fell forward, and lay motionless, face-down in the grass. Harry dashed over to him and rolled him over, tears running down his face. "Why weren't you strong enough to fight it? You promised me you would fight it." Harry whispered to him before pointing up towards the sky, shooting off red sparks. He got up and turned towards Cedric who was being held up by Haiden and watching him with barely concealed disgust.

"Please do not blame Viktor for this, he wasn't in his right mind. He was being controlled, I know that once he is in his right mind he, himself, will apologize to you." Harry said. The three of them stood there in the dark for a moment, looking around them.

"Well. . . I s'pose we'd better go on. . . ."

"What?" Haiden asked. "Oh. . . yeah. . . right. . ." It was an odd moment. The three of them had been briefly united against the controlled Viktor - now the fact that they were opponents came back to Harry. The three of them proceeded up the dark path without speaking, then Harry and Haiden turned left, and Cedric right. Cedric's stumbling footsteps soon died away.

Harry and Haiden moved on, continuing to use the Four-Point Spell, making sure they were going in the right direction. It was between them and Cedric now. Harry's desire to reach the cup first was now burning stronger than ever, but he could hardly believe that someone would control Viktor and make him do what he just did. The use of an Unforgivable Curse on a fellow human being meant a life term in Azkaban.

Every so often Harry and Haiden hit more dead ends, but the increasing darkness made Harry feel sure that they were getting near the heart of the maze. Then, as they strode down a long, straight path, he saw movement once again, and Haiden's beam of wandlight hit an extraordinary creature, one which Harry had only seen in picture form.

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 eye upon them as they approached. From the corner of his eye, Harry saw Haiden raise his wand to attack her, Harry quickly pushed Haiden's arm back down. Then she spoke, in a deep, hoarse voice.

"You are very near your goal. The quickest way is past me."

"So . . . so will you move, please?" Haiden asked.

"No." She said, continuing to pace. "Not unless you can answer my riddle. Answer on your first guess - I let you pass. Answer wrongly - I attack. Remain silent - I will let you walk away from me unscathed." Harry saw Haiden look at him and he rolled his shoulders, he could do this. And anyway, if he believed the riddle was too hard he would just remain silent and then him and Haiden would walk away from the sphinx unharmed, and try and find an alternative route to the center.

"Okay." Harry said. "Can I hear the riddle?"

The sphinx sat down upon her hind legs, in the very middle of 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?"

"A Spider." Harry said and Haiden gapped at him. The sphinx smiled broadly, got up, stretched her front legs, and then moved aside for them to pass. "Thank you." He said before leading as still amazed Haiden by her. They had to be close now, they had to be. . . Haiden's wand was telling them that they were bang on course; as long as they didn't meet anything too horrible, they might have a chance. . . .

Harry forced them into a run. They has a choice of paths up ahead. "Which way, Haiden?"

"What?" Haiden asked.

"Which way?" Harry repeated.

"Oh, uh, Point Me!" Haiden whispered again to his wand, and it spun around and pointed them to the right-hand one. Harry forced them to dash up that one and saw light ahead.

The Triwizard Cup was gleaming on a plinth a hundred yards away. Suddenly a dark figure hurtled out onto the path in front of them.

Cedric was going to get there first. Cedric was sprinting as fast as he could toward the cup, and, unless he used magic to speed him and Haiden up, Harry knew they would never catch up, Cedric was much taller, had much longer legs -

Then Harry saw something immense over a hedge to his left, moving quickly along a path that was that intersected with his own; it was moving so fast Cedric was about to run into it, and Cedric, his eyes on the cup, had not seen it -

"Cedric!" Both Harry and Haiden bellowed at the same time. "On your left!" Cedric looked around just in time to hurl himself past the thing and avoid colliding with it, but in his haste, he tripped. Harry saw Cedric's wand fly out of his hand as a gigantic spider stepped into the path and began to bear down upon Cedric.

"Stupefy!" Haiden yelled; the spell hit the spider's gigantic, hairy black body, but for all the good it did, he might as well have thrown a stone at it; the spider jerked, scuttled around, and ran at them instead. "Stupefy! Impedimenta! Stupefy!" But it was no use - the spider was either so large, or so magical, that the spells were doing no more than aggravating it.

Harry quickly pushed Haiden to safety before he, himself, dropped into the splits to dodge the spider's pincers. He quickly fell onto his back and rolled to the side before flipping back onto his feet. Harry gathered his magic and sent a wave of it in a round house kick, the wave hit the spider and caused it to slam into the hedge. He quickly planted his feet, gathered more magic, before sending small amounts of it out while punching the air five times, the magic hit the spider causing it to go limp.

Harry stood there panting, as the adrenaline left his body, while Haiden and Cedric both slowly stood up, both of them staring at Harry in shock.

"I don't think I'll ever get used to seeing you do that." Haiden said.

"What was that?" Cedric asked. "I've never seen anything like that in my life."

"I wouldn't think so. It's a mix of a Muggle fighting style called Mixed Martial Arts with an old way of Magical fighting, when witches and wizards used swords and staffs to conduct their magic with instead of wands." Harry informed them. "I could teach it to you, if you want."

"But I don't know how to use wandless magic." Cedric said.

"You don't have to know how to use wandless magic, you just have to imagine your limbs as your wand. It's easier than it sounds. After the celebration of your winning of the Cup, and after you rest up, I'll teach it to you." Harry said looking at Cedric was standing feet from the Triwizard Cup. "Gon on, take it. You're there." But Cedric didn't move. He merely stood there, looking at Harry with an undefined look. Then he turned to stare at the cup. Harry saw the longing expression on his face in its golden light. Cedric looked around at Harry again. Cedric took a deep breath.

"You take it. You two should win. Not only did both of you save my neck twice in here, but you, Harry, deserve it more." Harry shook his head.

"That's not how it's supposed to work." Harry said. He felt angry; him and his brother were forced to take part in this tournament against their own will, their lives had been turned upside down, their reputation tarnished by Ritta, and after all their efforts, Cedric had beaten them fair and square. "The one who reaches the cup first gets the points. That's you. I'm telling you, I'm not going to win any races on foot without any assistance from my magic." Cedric took a few paces nearer to the Stunned spider, away from the cup, shaking his head.

"No." He said.

"Stop it! Stop being noble!" Harry snapped out irritably. "Just take the damn thing so that we can get out of here!" Haiden took Harry's hand. Cedric watched them carefully.

"You told me about the dragons." Cedric pointed out. "I would've gone down in the first task if you hadn't told me what was coming."

"I had help on that too." Harry snapped. "You helped us with the egg - we're square."

"I had help on the egg in the first place." Cedric told him.

"We're still square." Harry told him.

"You should've got more point on the second task." Cedric told Haiden mulishly. "You stayed behind to get all the hostages. I should've done that."

"I was the only one who was thick enough to take that song seriously." Haiden told him bitterly.

"Just take the cup!" They both told Cedric.

"No." Cedric said stepping over the spider's tangled legs to join them, who stared at him. Cedric was serious. He was walking away from the sort of glory Hufflepuff House hadn't had in centuries. And Harry just knew that he would be accused of tricking Cedric into doing it. "Go on." Cedric said. He looked as though this was costing him every ounce of resolution he had, but his face was set, his arms were folded, he seemed decided.

Harry looked from Cedric to the cup. For one shining moment, he saw himself and Haiden emerging from the maze, holding it, not caring if he was accused of cheating and tricking Cedric to give up. He saw him and Haiden holding the Triwizard Cup aloft, heard the roar of the crowd. . . and then the picture faded, and he found himself staring at Cedric's shadowy, stubborn face.

"All of us." Harry and Haiden said together.

"What?"

"All three of us will take it at the same time. It's still a Hogwarts victory. We'll tie for it." Haiden said. Cedric stared at them. He unfolded his arms.

"You - you sure?"

"Yes." Harry said. "We've helped each other out, haven't we? We both got here. Let's just take it together." For a moment, Cedric looked as though he couldn't believe his ears; then his face split in a grin.

"You're on." He grabbed Harry's other hand and the three of them walked toward the plinth where the cup stood. When they had reached it, Cedric let go of Harry's hand and all three of them held a hand out over one of the cup's gleaming handles.

"On three, right?" Haiden asked.

"One -" Harry said.

"Two -" Cedric said.

"Three -" Haiden said. Cedric grasped his handle while Harry and Haiden grasped theirs at the same time. Instantly, Harry felt a jerk somewhere behind his navel. His feet had left the ground. He could not unclench his hand holding the Triwizard Cup; it was pulling him onward in a howl of wind and swirling color, Cedric on one side and Haiden on the other.