Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters.

A/N: Thanks to MaeSilverpaws1, who is beta-ing this story.

Chapter One Hundred-Six

The Others' View of the Maze

Ron and Hermione sat down in the stands as they prepared themselves to watch the third and final task of the Triwizard Tournament. Fred and George were sitting to their right while Ginny, Luna, Neville and Hannah were on their left. With the map of the maze laid out in front of them everyone was curious to see what was going to happen once they realized they wouldn't be able to see into the real maze.

"Oh good, we can see the monsters that are in the maze," Ron said not really sounding as if he thought that was a good thing. "At least we'll know when Harry's in danger."

"Yeah … that makes me feel so much better," Hermione groaned and he shrugged.

As the tournament started everyone was watching Harry's dot travel through the maze until half an hour into the task and Luna said something. "Harry's lucky that he hasn't run into as many creatures as Cedric has. They seem to be avoiding him."

"Huh?" Ron said who had been focusing so much on Harry that he wasn't paying attention to her.

"See," she pointed to a dot that showed a Kappa that after a short pause started moving in the opposite direction from Harry, though there was a clear line it could have moved to come across their friend. On the other hand Cedric seemed to have several creatures near him that were starting to close in on him.

"How many times has a creature turned away from Harry?" Hermione asked, like Ron she was focus so closely on Harry's dot that she hadn't noticed anything else.

"A few," Luna answered and Ron and Hermione exchanged a look.

"Do you think that someone else was affecting the creatures?" Sirius, who was sitting behind Ron and Hermione, asked. It was hard not to listen to the others since there wasn't much more that they could pay attention to during this task.

"Oh," Luna said to the question and shrugged her shoulders. "I thought maybe Harry had a snufflelot with him, they're good at hiding themselves from other creatures … or maybe he had a …."

"Harry wouldn't know what that is unless you gave him one, Luna," Neville said to his friend kindly.

"Hm …" Luna nodded her head, "then Mr. Black might be right."

There was a chilling scream then.

"Fleur!" they heard Bill gasp what everyone else was starting to think. He was sitting behind Sirius and Remus with his mother and had not been listening to the others' conversation but started paying attention when Fred started talking.

"There's nothing around her!" he exclaimed. "What attacked her … it wasn't a creature …"

"Maybe it was another champion …?" Ginny supplied.

"No … nobody was there … nothing was there!"

"She's near the edge of the maze …" Ron mumbled, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his normal map, the one that showed the school. The edges of the maze were so close to the stands that it was impossible to distinguished one name from another, though there seemed to be several close to where Fleur was.

"Ron, could you put that away, we're trying to see what's going on," Ginny complained, his map was covering part of the maze as he looked at it. Instead of doing that, he wiggled out of his seat, Hermione gave him a question look, but he shrugged. He wasn't sure why, but he felt it was import to watch this map as well as the one on the maze.

"Tell me what's happening with Harry," Ron said and Hermione nodded her head.

"He's not moving right now …" she frowned as Harry didn't move for what seemed like forever, which caused her to start to panic. What if something happened to him while they had been worried about Fleur? Then he was moving again, making his way slowly but surely to the center of the maze. Hermione's comments about this allowed Ron, who was now sitting behind her next to Sirius, to know what Harry was doing. It wasn't until she told them that Harry was getting closer to Cedric that he saw something odd.

"What the …?" he started to say, staring at his map in confusion but before he could elaborate more things were happening.

"Viktor is now coming closer to … I wonder how he got so far in the maze already," Hermione kept up her commentary, "He's coming up to Cedric now … what … I …"

"What is it?" Remus asked as he tried to see what Hermione was looking at.

"I don't know," she answered.

"Cedric dot was thrown backwards," Fred added.

"Now Harry seems to be going through one of the hedges to get to the others," George added.

"Now Krum's dot was thrown to the side," Ginny went on; they were all caught up with what was happening that they were surprised to see red color the sky at Harry's warning shot.

"What is happening in there?" Hermione groaned, wishing they could know more.

"Ron? Ron what did you see?" Sirius asked him because the boy still looked confused as he stared at his map.

"I … it said … Barty Crouch?" he stumbled over the words. "I don't get it … Harry said … that Dumbledore said he was probably … dead."

"Let me see that," Sirius demanded.

"I can't see him now … his name is in the muddle with others," Ron said handing the map over all the same. "He was around here though."

"Hmph," Sirius grimaced at the edge of the map that Ron had pointed out. "That's near where Harry and the others were."

"Yeah," Ron agreed having realized the same thing; Ron didn't like what this might mean.

"I'm taking this," Sirius said getting up and Ron made no effort to protest. Sirius didn't know what any of this meant, but he knew it wasn't good and it was something that needed to be told. Sirius got out of his seat and started to make his way through the crowd, he could hear Molly saying something to her children, probably making sure that they didn't follow him. Someone, however, was following him; Tonks and Remus.

"What are we doing?" Tonks asked having adjusted into her Auror mode. She was looking at Sirius as if he was one of her senior officers, and he realized that Tonks wasn't just his little cousin.

"One of us should let Dumbledore know what's happening, and the others should go to the edge of the maze to see if we can find Barty Crouch," Sirius said grimacing. "Damn, we should have gotten another map …"

"Don't worry, I got one," Remus said holding up the original Marauder's Map. "George thought we might need it."

"Quick one, that kid," Sirius beamed. "Remus you go to tell Dumbledore … Tonks and I well go to the maze."

Remus looked like he was about to disagree for a moment, giving Tonks a wary look, but he nodded his head. He knew that though they didn't work together, the two were trained to respond well with each other and it was the better pairing.

"Sirius … what do you think this means," Tonks asked as they ran through the stands heading to the ground.

"I don't know," Sirius said, "but it's not right for Crouch to be here … no matter what reason …"

"Do you really think it's him?" Tonks said, "That he was the one to put Harry's name in the cup …"

"Hm," Sirius said thoughtfully, she was right, that was what Sirius was thinking right now, but he couldn't see the old man doing anything like that. As much as he always hated the stiff man, Sirius believed that he would never be a Death Eater. Then again, his son had gone to Azkaban and died there … his son had been there when Bellatrix Lestrange had tried to attack Frank and Alice Longbottom and she might have done terrible things to them if Frank hadn't been wary of that …

"What is it Sirius?" Tonks asked.

"I don't know," he frowned as he jogged; they were now reaching the edge of the maze. "Just something's off … I don't know."

"What are you doing here?" a sly voice said from behind them and Sirius nearly groaned to hear him.

"Something is wrong Snape," Sirius said.

"Clearly … starting with you being near …" the Potion Master started to say.

"Barty Crouch was seen near the maze," Sirius said and Snape's eyebrows rose.

"How …" before Snape could even ask the question Sirius pushed the map at him. Snape looked at it closely, not seeing the name that Sirius had told him was there.

"He was around here," Sirius pointed to a place that was along the way near the end of the maze and they both gasped as they saw the name written clearly. Barty Crouch.

"What is he doing?" Snape mutter to himself. Sirius didn't pay him any attention as he ran past Snape, Tonks following close behind. He knew that Snape had chosen to follow them as well because he heard the extra set of footsteps but he didn't care. At this point, having the extra hand was probably a good thing. Then again, seeing as it was Snape, and if Crouch was a Death Eater, he wouldn't be of much use. They were nearly at the dot of Barty Crouch when they heard someone scream.

"Harry!"

It was a gasp from inside of the maze, clearly made by one of the other boys, Cedric Diggory, if Sirius was correct. What was happening inside of the maze? Was Harry in trouble …?

"Sirius," Tonks said in a warning tone and he pushed down the bile that was growing in his mouth. It wasn't his job to protect Harry from whatever was in the maze … that was part of the tournament … he was here to take out the threat that was coming from outside the maze.

That was when he saw the man that was standing now in front of them. Sirius slowed down and ducked behind a hedge of the maze that hide them from the view of Barty Crouch … but Sirius had not seen Crouch there … he had seen …

"It's Mad-Eye," he whispered to the puzzled looking Tonks and scowling Snape.

"What?" Tonks said just barely keeping her voice low enough in her shock. Sirius looked back at that map, the words clearly saying Barty Crouch.

"Argh …" Sirius suddenly shouted as he felt pain shout through his leg. "He knows we're here," he said this time through clutch teeth giving Tonks a sign. If they were fighting the really Mad-Eye Moody, this sign would have been pointless, but they weren't fighting the real Mad-Eye. Even before they could start his plan, Snape started moving. "Snape … what are you doing …?"

"So you are the one that has been sneaking into my office and stealing from me," Snape said in a cold voice facing the fake Moody.

"Severus Snape," the man said with a smile that made Moody's twisted face look madder than ever. "The Dark Lord will reward me more than ever for killing you. He was not pleased that you have done nothing to try and fine him and now you have come here to prevent his return."

"I have no idea what you are talking about," Snape said coldly. "Ravings from a mad man … though I wonder how you escaped Azkaban … Barty Crouch."

"Clever … the Dark Lord always thought you were so clever! But I'm the one that got him all he wished for! I'm the one that brought him back. He will honor me above all others! And I will kill you before you can spin your lies to try to get back on his good side."

"Mad and stupid," Snape shook his head as Sirius shot the fake Moody with a stunning curse from behind. "You have an eye to see every threat around you and you focus it on me," he finished his thought to the unconscious man.

"Nice distraction," Sirius said to Snape with a grimace, they were no longer enemies but it was hard to say something like that all the same.

"He was a fool," Snape shook his head; "too arrogant about …" before he could finish Snape grasped his arm his eyes flicking with pain. "No!"

"What?" Sirius asked. "Snape! What happened?"

It was like the Potion Master couldn't hear him at all as he turn pale … pain and despair in his eyes.

"Severus!"

Snape looked at Sirius at the use of his name, "he's back!"

Sirius didn't need Snape to tell him who he was. It was clear by the tone. "Voldemort."

Snape didn't flinch at the name … he was too far gone to even noticed. He spoke in a ghostly voice, "he's summoning all of his Death Eaters …"

"Harry," Sirius whispered this time, what Crouch had said about getting the Dark Lord what he wished for … he knew that was Harry.

"Sirius, we need to get back to Dumbledore," Tonks said in a would be calm voice if he didn't know her so well. He knew she was just as torn up about this as he was, but she was trying to make him see sense. She bond Crouch up tightly and made sure that he wouldn't be able to get away.

"Yes," Sirius said dimly aware that she was right that they needed to talk to Dumbledore, but that didn't seem to matter when Harry was likely fighting for his life or … no he could not … would not … think it.

It took a moment for Tonks to get Sirius and Snape moving again, they were both lost to their fears, but eventually they did. When they got to the stand they realized they couldn't take the unconscious Barty Crouch, disguised as Moody, any further. The students were still in the stand and would probably wonder what was going on if their Defense Professor went by like this.

"Sirius, Tonks," Bill said walking towards them.

"Do you know what happened to Harry?" Sirius asked immediately, a nervous edge in his voice.

Bill grimaced, "he and Cedric seemed to have been moving towards the cup at the same time when he disappeared off the map completely. We had hoped that it was a portkey to the front of the maze … but he was nowhere to be seen."

Sirius flinched at the words falling to his knees. He could not deal with this … not now.

"I need to go," Snape said pushing pass all of them and disappearing within minutes.

Sirius didn't pay attention to this at all as his mind filled with horrible thoughts … he couldn't hear Tonks and Bill discussing what happened or what they should do now. He didn't notice that McGonagall had joined them, having come on orders by Dumbledore who had obviously seen that they had somehow secured Crouch. He didn't notice anything at all until there was a cheer going up throughout the crowd.

"Harry!" was chanted over and over along with, "Potter! Hogwarts's Champion!"

Sirius's head snapped up … not believing his ears. Could this be possible!

"Sirius … go!" he heard McGonagall say to him and felt someone push his back as he ran towards the front of the maze, pushing his way through the people starting to make their ways out of the stand until he was face with a sight that he was afraid he would never be able to see again.

He noticed that Harry was bruised and bloody and his eyes were haunted … he looked as if he had aged so many years in just the few hours since the last time that Sirius had seen him. But he was standing there … he was alive …

"Harry," Sirius gasped and Harry's eyes meet his owns and then the boy was in his arms and Sirius was holding onto him as tightly as he could. He wished that he could take away all that Harry must have gone through … protect him from the pain … but there was nothing he could do about that. He could only hold Harry as the boy clung to him through his pain.