It was finally the time that Emma had been waiting for the entire year, it was equally exciting as it was worrying. It was time for her to start the Final Task. The one that would prove that she was worthy of having her name entered at the beginning of the year and show the ones who thought she'd never be able to do it, herself included, just how strong Emma Swan really was. There was just one Task left before she was crowned the winner because she would win this. As long as she kept calm and collected, nothing could stop her from achieving her goal. The Interhouse Cup!

Confidently, Emma walked through the door and embraced the sound of the lock twisting behind her. It was as if it was locking out any other thoughts other than the ones focusing her on the Task ahead. Anything else that was going on in her life remained on the outside of that door and locked away from her.

Looking up, she realised that she had just entered what looked like a normal, albeit definitely unused, classroom. There were empty desks which all look a little dusty and graffitied, and chairs scattered around the room. Some had missing legs or had just fallen on the floor when abandoned. Nothing else seemed to be of importance.

No, that couldn't be right, she must be missing something. She kept looking and finally saw something that was somewhat abnormal. There was an empty cage on the front desk, most likely left over from the last lesson to be taught there.

Concentrate, she thought to herself. If nothing is here, find a way out. It's a race after all, so keep moving!

Turning around, the door she had entered through had not only locked but completely vanished, leaving just a blank wall behind, so that route was useless. She needed another way out. Facing the front again, she looked along the wall and saw a different texture in the flicker of the candlelight around the room. Rushing forward, she realised that it was a curtain, but the design had made it blend in with the stone surrounding it unless you saw it in the correct light. The exit had to be behind there, there was nowhere else it could possibly be.

Striding further forwards, she reached out to push the curtain back but as the fabric was disturbed, something shot out and hit her in the face. There was a sting on her cheek as it cut her, but she ignored that. She shook her head at the sudden attack before she saw the creature perching on the floor, ready to strike again.

Immediately, she recognised the wide eyes and the sharp claws.

"Doxy," she muttered. She was more than familiar with the creature after eating their eggs for a bet with Minnie the previous year (a rare occurrence for Emma who seldom lost bets). She shuddered, that was not something that she wanted to repeat ever again.

The doxy's eyes narrowed as it got ready to fly and strike again. However, Emma was faster. She pulled out her wand and aimed it as the soaring creature.

"Immobulus!" She cried and the doxy dropped to the floor before it could reach her with its arms still outstretched as if ready to attack. "Wingardium leviosa!" She swished and flicked her wand and carried the doxy into the empty cage and rushed forward to shut it before it could reawaken.

As she shut the cage, she saw a key in the lock, so she twisted it, ensuring the creature wouldn't escape. At the touch, the key glowed red before falling out of the keyhole and onto the desk. It then started to enlarge until it was the size to fit a regular door.

Without thinking fully, Emma picked up the key and rushed back over to the curtain and successfully opened it wide to reveal a wooden door. She slipped the new key into the lock and twisted and the door flew open. Wasting no time, she stepped through to face the next task.

The next room was even emptier than the one before and there were no doors or windows. There wasn't even a curtain or anything as such where an escape route could be found.

There was only one small table in the centre of the room with a chair slightly pulled back, inviting someone to sit down. A single candle flickered from the centre of the room, but it was bright enough to see unlike the previous room that was surrounded by candlelight on the walls.

"Lumos maxima," Emma muttered and her wand lit up a bright light to illuminate the entire room. With it, she could see everything much better than just the solitary flicker of the candle. Stepping forward, Emma saw a lone mug on the table and she shook her head in disbelief when she looked inside. There at the bottom of the mug were the dregs of tea leaves.

Ruby had been right to teach her basic Divination skills. She could hardly believe her eyes that it was part of the Task. Divination was an imprecise art, especially to those who did not have the talent of foresight; still it was a skill Hogwarts taught, so here it was.

Quickly, she sat down and tried to figure out what the shapes were, assuming that was the task at hand. She scanned her brain to think. As it was a subject that she wasn't completely familiar with as she chose not to study it, it took longer than she really wanted to admit for it to come to her.

"That's the sun," she muttered to herself. "And that's a tree? No, a plant and a dagger. But what does that mean? It's just a plant and the sun in a mug!" Then something hit her. "Oh, it's a deadly plant and the sun, but it's still just in a–"

Whoosh!

The chair fell from beneath her and suddenly she was falling through what she though had been a stone floor, but now it was a hole. Fortunately, she landed in on something soft and spongey.

However, the fortune soon turned south as Emma realised just what exactly the landing had been. The sun and plant, she had said and a plant she had landed in. But it wasn't just a plant. It was a deadly plant.

Devil's Snare.

Suddenly, she felt the vines start to travel towards her and they started to weave around her ankles, reaching slowly towards her torso. She knew she needed to relax, but the jellied plant was repulsive on her body and she really didn't have time to relax for it to leave her alone and disappear. She pointed her wand up and cried, "lumos solem!"

The light was so bright and hot that she was pretty sure she heard the plant scream out in pain before it quite suddenly and unceremoniously released her and dropped her straight through the floor.

Unfortunately, this landing was not as soft as she hit the stone. However, she'd rather that than have to face another bout of Devil's Snare. She quickly stood up and shook off the pain from the harsh landing, she had a task to continue with and win.

As soon as she took a step forward, the room lit up a blaze. Flaming hot fire shot up every wall and she was encompassed with heat and smoke.

Unconsciously, she glanced to her wand to see that her previous spell had finished and she wasn't the reason for the blazing room which had first crossed her mind. No, that couldn't be possible as the flames had only lit as she stepped forward and it ran up the walls. The fire would be pouring from the centre if her presence had been the cause.

The point of the task was putting out the fire, not figuring out how it came to be. She needed to act quickly as she could already feel the smoke starting to linger in her lungs making it harder to breath by the second.

Luckily for the Gryffindor, for the Second Task, her main spell had been the water making charm. She had proved to herself that she could make a powerful charm of it too. It was second nature to her now.

"Aguamenti!" She screamed and with the power behind the spell, the jets of water shot out so powerfully that she was able to put out the fire with just the one attempt. Hopefully, the speed would make up time for her thinking it through beforehand.

With the fire gone, she was able to breath clearly. She coughed to remove the lingering smoke and exhaled, something her father had always told her to do in case of too much smoke inhalation, but she found she was fine. It was time to continue with the task.

With a quick check over the room to see if there was anything that could cause the fire to restart, she was relieved to find that her checks had yielded no results, she was in the clear. Not because there was nothing that could start a fire, but because there was nothing in the room at all. There was only an old wardrobe in the corner that had been missed due to the large licks of flame surrounding it.

Carefully, she approached it, hoping it would give a clue to how to escape the room. By now, she was pretty sure she had fallen through at least two floors and didn't really want to be sinking any further.

As she approached, the wardrobe started to shake madly and she recognised what lurked inside immediately.

"Boggart," she hissed. Emma hated them after experiencing it during her third year as part of her Defence Against the Dark Arts class. It had been one of her worst assignments. She knew just exactly what lurked inside and she never wanted to face it again. Nevertheless, she knew she had to, to continue with the Task.

With a deep breath, Emma ripped the door open and shot back and waited for the inevitable.

As expected, a familiar gentleman walked out from the wardrobe, the one she had been expecting to see. Midas Swan was dressed in his smartest of suits with his Wizengamot hat placed on his head, the 'W' emblem on his chest and his wand firmly in his hand. The sight of her grandfather usually brought her joy, but this brought anything but. Her grandfather was a very happy, jolly man, but when he was in his role as the Chief Warlock, he had to make severe decisions and when she was young, she'd always been scared of meeting him in that zone.

This was no different. She thought she knew what he was about to say, disappointment over her bad grades as he had the last time. However, what he said was not what she was prepared for.

"You disgust me, Emma Mallory Swan," he spat, his face twisted in an ugly manner, which made her feel sick to her stomach. This was not the grandfather she knew and loved. "I know all about your dirty secret with that brat. Do you think I would stand by and allow it? I've already spoken to your parents to remove Swan from your name. No family of mine will act like that. You're out of the family and I never want to see you anywhere near them again."

The tone of his voice and the snarl on his lip hit Emma deeply. It was everything she had most feared about everything that she had realised was true about herself. She never wanted her grandfather to hate her as he was her favourite person. She'd been so scared.

Scared.

The word resonated deep inside as she realised what was going on. "You're a boggart," she reminded herself. She lifted her wand arm, her hand shaking slightly with the panic pumping through her body. "R-R-Riddikulus!"

The was a crack and a bang and the boggart twisted in the air before disappearing completely. For a moment, Emma thought a door would appear, but nothing appeared. Instead, the door to the wardrobe just stayed opened.

"For Merlin's sake!" She muttered before she walked forward and entered the wardrobe.

Behind her, the door snapped shut and she was in the pitch black. The darkness surrounded her, but it gave her a few much-needed seconds to compose herself.

"Lumos!"

The bright globe appeared at the tip of her wand and the light revealed a steep staircase heading up. She had no idea how many steps there were, so she just dropped her head and started rushing up them. Quickly, she glanced down to the watch on her wrist and saw that twenty minutes had passed but that didn't mean anything as she had no idea how quickly the others were progressing through this veritable maze of challenges. She just had to hope that she was going quickly but the dealing with the boggart took longer than it should have. As soon as she saw the wardrobe shake, she knew it was a boggart, but yet she had still allowed the fear to take over. Then again, that was the creature's speciality.

Shaking her head, she removed the negative thoughts that were threatening to take over. There was no time to think about her grandfather's reaction. He didn't know yet and she would tell him when she was ready.

As she reached the top of the stairs, she reached yet another closed door. She reached out and twisted the handle, but unsurprisingly at this point, it was locked.

"Alohomora!" She cried but the door wouldn't budge and as she used another spell, her previous one ceased which she had momentarily forgot could happen. "Lumos Maxima!"

At the brighter, more permanent spell, she saw a tiny corridor appear to the left and heard the rustle of wings. Quickly, she rushed down and saw a small chest with a broken lock. She threw the chest lid open and suddenly all the wings were fluttering around her, aside from one that was cowering in the corner of the chest.

In the centre of the wings were keys and Emma realised Professor Flitwick must have just felt uncreative and suggested his winged keys from when he had to help protect the Philosopher's Stone. Either way, Emma didn't care as she reached down and pulled the cowering key out of the chest before she shot back towards the locked door. The other wings around her flew away as soon as her hand wrapped around her chosen key. They must have been intended to be distractions, trying to confuse the Champion from selecting the correct key, but Emma had the eye of a Seeker and found the required one immediately. It was made more obvious that it hadn't even bothered to fly around and tried to stay out of the way.

Now face to face with the locked door once more, she slipped the key in the hole and twisted. The door cracked open and she stepped through immediately and was met with fresh air. The bright light of the outdoors momentarily blinded her. Blinking rapidly, she let her eyes adjust before she started to figure out where she was.

She was on the outside of one of the school towers, but didn't matter where she was, it was where she needed to be and how she was going to get there. That was when she realised what was in front of her. Two school broomsticks.

Letting out an internal cheer, she reached forward to pick up the one underneath the Gryffindor emblem. She wished more than anything that she had her Firebolt X, but it wouldn't have been fair as it was currently fastest broom in the world and this was just an old-fashioned race. They needed to be on equal footing. She quickly noticed that there were only two. Elsa and Regina must already be ahead.

"Shit," Emma muttered as she rushed forward to take a broom. The others were fast on a broom so she really needed to catch up.

Just as she was about to take off, she heard a door to the left slam and saw Elsa rushing forward.

"Elsie?!" Emma gasped, aghast that it wasn't her cousin in the lead. She turned back and saw the remaining broom was underneath the Ravenclaw emblem.

"Em?" Elsa replied, just as shocked. "Come on, we're still competing!"

"Oh yeah!"

The reminder spurred Emma on and she jumped on the broom, immediately shooting off. As her Head of House had said, the route was easy to follow as it was made up by levitating giant white arrows pointing them in the direction they needed to go.

Emma could feel her cousin hot on her heels, but she had to ignore her. As far as she was concerned, Elsa was the competing Seeker and she had to capture the Snitch first. Leaning forward, Emma urged the old broom to speed up to its maximum speed.

Before long, two small black dots appeared in front of them, but as Emma continued to fly, the dots grew larger and she soon realised that they belonged to Regina and Mary Margaret. However, what was more concerning was the fact that the two in front were not gaining speed, if anything, they were slowing down. One was gesturing madly which was even worse and a wand was suddenly pointed towards the other.

Suddenly panicked, Emma leant even further to her broom and felt it spurt forward as fast as it could as she approached the other two Champions just in time to see and hear Mary Margaret wave her wand widely and scream, "Sectumsempra!"

At the curse, Emma's entire body froze as she saw what happening in front of her. However, her natural instincts and speed of thoughts hit her as her raised her wand and blasted the first spell that came to mind. She had no time to even question if it was a real spell.

"Deflecto!" She cried and a powerful blast flew from her wand and cut off the Devil's Curse, as the sectumsempra spell had been deemed after the Second War with Voldemort, shattering the curse into nothingness.

Mary Margaret screamed in frustration that her spell hadn't worked but before she could think of another spell, her broom started to shake. There was no reason for it, unless the professors had built in a cheat detecting spell to know what was going on.

Regina turned to see who her saviour was and shouldn't have been surprised to see that it was Emma. It would always be the blonde.

"Who do you think you are?" Emma demanded from behind as she tried to catch up to the two in front. "You're a dirty cheat!"

"The winner of this!" Mary Margaret cried. She raised her wand again and aimed it at Regina's retreating back. The Slytherin had flown off to get some distance from the pack to return back to the Task at hand. "Crucio!"

Emma screamed at the sight of the Unforgivable being shot, but the unlikely happened. Regina didn't seem to feel the curse and Mary Margaret was thrown off her broom. She launched forward and reached out grabbling to grasp hold of Regina's broom in front of her to try to stay airborne. Screams and cries were heard as the two started battling each other for control of the broomstick, but they were falling quickly as the broom shook with its inbuilt cheating detection charm.

However, the two continued to descend until Mary Margaret managed to tug the handle so violently, Emma had no idea how she had the strength in her, and Regina fell off the broom completely. Dropping quickly.

Not knowing what else to do, Emma dived. Regina was the Snitch she needed to catch. She leant forward to build up speed and managed to snatch Regina's hand and pull her onto the back of her broom.

"Em, what?" Regina gasped, in shock of what was going on.

But Emma didn't answer. As she flew past, she kicked Mary Margaret off the broom she was starting to take control of and the Hufflepuff started falling again.

"Shoot red sparks!" Emma commanded to Regina who obeyed Emma's command, sending the scarlet sparks into the air so that a professor would know that a student was in destress. "Where's Elsa?"

"Just ahead!" Regina called.

Emma nodded. "Grab hold and lean down."

"Got it," Regina agreed and the two flew on.

The broom was heavier with both of them riding, but they were still slight and talented flyers so they knew how to tease a broom to speed up. Then suddenly, what her Head of House had said to her just before the Task had commenced sprung to mind.

"Just remember, you have your wand. If something isn't going as well as you want, you can use your wand. Every spell used for your gain and not against others counts. Just remember that."

She was currently flying on the world's worst broom and she needed speed. She continued to follow the arrows in the sky, but she couldn't tell where the end destination was and all she knew was it could be miles away. Speed was the only thing standing against her. She needed to catch up to Elsa who was barely in sight now as she had flown straight past the fight and there was only one way that she was going to be able to catch up with her cousin. She would be using her wand for her on gain and not using against somebody else.

Quickly, she flicked her wand and cried, "accio Firebolt X!"

She just had to hope that her broom would appear soon enough. However, barely ten seconds later, her Firebolt X was soring towards her.

"Get ready to jump!" Emma cried after letting out a cheer of relief.

Regina's eyes flashed open in surprise, but she nodded. She trusted Emma more that life itself. She'd never put them in harm. It was further proved when she saw the broom flying towards them.

"Ready! Now!" Emma screamed and the two launched themselves from the school broomstick and onto Emma's Firebolt X.

As soon as she was on her broom, Emma knew the Cup was hers. She and Regina leant down as one and they shot forward. If anyone saw them, they would just be green and maroon blurs as they flew around the castle.

They continued to follow the arrows as they started to gain on Elsa. In the distance, they could see the flag indicating the end zone. Unsurprisingly, it was the Quidditch pitch. She should have known it would be as soon as she found out the final part of the task was a flying race. They would have also needed a large enough space to land safely and to seat the spectators safely.

Regina had seen the end destination too and she grabbed onto Emma's hips and they leant down as one to keep building up the speed. The flag was barely ten meters away and Elsa was so close, but Emma pushed even further on her broom, urging it to go as quickly as it could and it was as if the wood heard her and was more than ready to follow its rider's will.

The two shot forwards faster than Emma had ever ridden and they dived towards the finishing line and shot past Elsa barely two seconds before she could cross the line herself. They dropped to the ground with Emma pulling up just so they could stop as they crossed the finishing line to stop themselves from crash landing with the speed they were going.

She quickly applied the brakes and turned to return back to the finishing line where Elsa had had just jumped off her broom. Emma and Regina jumped off the broom and started making their way over to where Elsa was standing. Although, Emma had expected her cousin to look furious that she had come so close to winning but she just saw the Ravenclaw shaking her head and chuckling to herself.

The entire stadium was electric, with cheers, cries and celebrations that three of the four Champions had finished at the same time. Every spectator was cheering for their own Champion, singing their praises. Emma wanted to see who was there for her, but before she knew it, Professor Longbottom and her parents were rushing towards her. Kat pulled Emma into a deep hug and Regina was pushed aside as her own family and Professor Gold came towards her, with both Zelena and Cora questioning the Slytherin and checking her over for injury.

"What happened?" Kat asked as she too checked her daughter over for any sign of pain or injury. "We couldn't hear what was going on really from the Pendants."

"Mary Margaret went crazy," Emma replied. "She tried to curse Regina and then pulled her off her broom so I caught her so she wouldn't fall. Have I lost?"

Professor Longbottom shook his head. "No, you won, clearly. The judges are questioning the placement of Regina and Elsa because of it."

"Oh," Emma muttered, going to her go to when she was confused and didn't know what to say. "But I kicked Mary Margaret off her broom?"

"They took that as finding your footing on your broom," Professor Longbottom said. "Well, I believe so, but you also arranged for the red sparks to be shot so it wasn't all bad. She'd already cheated."

"You were amazing, honey," Kat assured her.

Emma glanced to the right where Regina was still being questioned by her family. "So, has he been alerted?"

Kat bit her lip and glanced to where the Mills women were gathered before she slightly nodded. "Five minutes ago," she whispered.

"Right," Emma muttered, but before she could say anything, Professor McGonagall was stepping forward and clearing her throat.

"May we have your attention!" She called out in her Scottish lilt, silencing the crowd immediately as they all turned to the Headmistress with hunger in their eyes to find out the final scores. "It's time to announce the winner!"

However, before the Headmistress could say another word, a wizard stepped forward and Emma heard her mother's whisper of surprise.

"It actually worked!"

Emma spun on her heel to look at her mother, but her green eyes, which Emma had inherited, were focussed on the newcomer. She didn't even glance at her daughter as she started pulling her wand from her sleeve.

"Allow me to do the honours, Minerva," said the man. "Seeing as it is my daughter who has won."

The crowd gasped as one in surprise, but none were as surprised as Mary Margaret herself who stepped forward from the crowd and rushed towards her father and the Headmistress.

"What?!"