Chapter 66 - Labyrinth

"What we all dread most is a maze with no centre." ― G.K. Chesterton

"Watch your step," said Harry, swatting at his arms. "Looks like yet another spider web in these bushes."

Hermione, grimacing, squeezed her way through the narrow row of hedges. "With yet another lack of giant spider?"

"Seems like it," said Harry. "Not that I should complain but this is seriously weird."

Hermione nodded. Their journey through the maze so far had been strange, in the sense that none of the challenges felt, well, challenging. Their supposed goal was to find clues to open gates, but they'd passed two open entry gates a while back, and several monster nests without monsters. It was like someone forgot to reset the maze after they were done with it.

Once they'd passed into a central area, Hermione spied a flash of blue hiding in an overgrown bush.

"Is…that what I think it is?" she said, approaching carefully.

"No, it can't be." Harry gasped. "A real clue box? Are we about to get an actual challenge?"

Hermione thought it might be jinxing things to say she hoped so. She would be relieved for the maze to become more than a pleasant stroll, if only because that was somehow less ominous.

The clue box was engraved with a flaming harpy, and inside there was a scroll. Unrolling it, she read, "Clue 5: What has two hands and flies?"

"Err…so wait, did we miss clues 1 through 4?" Harry frowned. "But anyway, two hands and flies…umm. A very dirty person?"

"A wizard on a broom?"

"A…harpy?" He grimaced, inspecting the engraved image. "Merlin, I'm hoping that's not it."

She wrote down their answers and stuck them inside the box. When she opened it again, there was a golden key inside, wrapped in a map piece.

"Wonderful," said Harry, without enthusiasm. "Who even writes these riddles? Let's go open the gate I guess." They meandered over. "I'm assuming the map piece is to help us navigate, and there are...twelve slots on our card."

"A map would be helpful, actually," said Hermione. "Maybe now we can stop wasting time navigating dead ends."

"I know," sighed Harry. "I mean, I shouldn't complain it's just, this all makes no sense. Here we are in Time's Official Hogwarts quest taking a stroll and answering kiddie riddles. I haven't even had to take out my pouch full of…"

He paused, and Hermione turned to see him staring at her. "What?"

"That protection bracelet I gave you…did you take it off?"

"No, I—" She looked down at her wrist, which was bare. She double checked both arms and around her feet.

"You were wearing it before we left St. Mungos. I checked. My protection charm is also missing. Does that mean..." He pulled out his pouch, stuck his hand in. "Felix Felicis." A pause. "Darkness powder." Another pause. "Grenade." He pulled his hand out of the bag empty, his voice pitched high and tight. "Hermione, do you still have your cloak of invisibility and your time turner?"

She checked her pouch. Both items were gone. Hermione felt a terrible sinking feeling in her stomach as she met Harry's eyes.

"Except for our wands, we're defenseless. But...how?"

"Maybe the quest was designed to make all higher level magic besides wands inaccessible?" He frowned. "That could explain why we can't fly either. But then why is my grenade gone...muggle artefact ban, maybe?" He ran a hand through his hair. "It's just...I feel like I'm missing something."

Hermione opened her mouth to respond when she heard a screech nearby, and a pack of blast-ended skrewts lit up the maze near them. She drew her wand, and decided to save her panic for later.

###

After several hours, when their maze experience had progressed from sorta boring to incredibly traumatizing, Harry realized that it wasn't fear of losing Hermione that would turn him to the dark side, nor would it be influence from an evil mentor, nor a desire for revenge or anything like that.

No, it would be painstakingly drawing this stupid map for hours on end.

He really had jinxed it earlier, saying the maze was too easy. Since then, the maze had thrown various trials at them, such as an ice storm with killer icicles, hordes of lizards with creepy tongues, and other monstrosities. Along the way, they had lost their map, their key to the 9th gate, and most of their sanity.

They'd had to circle back and find a new way through the maze. To save time, they'd tried cutting down the hedges or jumping over them, but all that led to was injury and frustration. They'd tried the "right hand" method of navigation and they'd tried Trémaux's algorithm, but both strategies led them into every dead end, which contained so many traps and monster nests that it was actually causing them to get more lost. So their only option, as Harry could see it, was drawing a new map while plodding slowly through the maze.

That is what they had been doing for the last two hours or so. At intersections in the maze, Harry would send out scouting spells, and then he would use the data to draw his map. It was an agonizingly slow process, and the amount of attention to detail required made him want to crawl out of his skin. Constant monitoring and corrections, converting unseen distances from kilometers to centimeters. After twenty minutes he wanted to force choke the map and then burn it, but he persevered.

Hermione hadn't spoken to him in a while, which he assumed was due to the waves of dark energy emanating from him. She was doing what she could to help, keeping watch and casting protection spells. Even so, he felt uneasy and vulnerable, like something dark and deadly was watching them from the hedges, beyond their line of sight.

Above them all, the moon rose higher, the hands on its clock moving slowly towards midnight.

After awhile-as Harry stared at the data and made calculations-Hermione approached him cautiously. "Umm...Harry, I hate to say this, but I think we might be lost. The intersection we're in...doesn't it look exactly like the one we saw two hours ago?"

Harry had to restrain his dark side, which was about to snap at her in frustration. "Of course they do," he bit out. "All these hedges look the same."

She surveyed the hedges before them, then shook her head. "No, there's something wrong here. I've been noticing it for a while. If we got turned around, it would explain why we haven't seen a gate in over an hour. If my internal estimates are correct, the door we're looking for is about a mile to the south."

Harry gritted his teeth, but said nothing, continuing to mark their path on the map.

"Harry...are you listening?"

Remember rule 17. Calm, deep breaths.

After taking a moment, Harry responded. "Yes, I'm listening. I just don't see how that makes any sense. I have been very careful with my calculations, so being off by several kilometers doesn't seem possible."

She bit her lip. "I know you've been careful, and I don't want to dismiss your hard work. But this maze could be manipulating us in ways we can't see. What if the hedges can move, like the hogwarts staircases?"

Please God no I will tear this maze apart-

"Or maybe," continued Hermione. "The maze was designed to lead us in circles, and we need a new strategy to find the correct path?"

"Perhaps, but it's just as likely that the maze created an identical hedge to confuse you," he countered. "Let's say on the off chance you're right, though. What do you think we should do?"

"Well," she said tentatively. "I could send a tracker to the south, which would take about 45 minutes to confirm if I'm right. Or I could go myself, and it would take two minutes."

Harry shook his head. "No, Hermione. Every time we separate, this maze tries to kill us. We can't take that kind of risk."

"We're in a time maze, Harry. We have to take some risks. I can set up protections, put up markers so I can easily find my way back. Or...better yet, I could take you with me-"

"It's out of the question," he said flatly. "You get a gut feeling and decide to deviate off the path we've been following for-what, two hours? That's not just risky, it's reckless. I mean-hell, I wish I could throw caution to the wind and fiendfyre my way through this maze. I hate this awful place just as much as you do, but we need to follow our plan and not get sidetracked."

She shook her head. "It's not our plan, Harry. It's your plan. I have superpowers and magic, and yet I've been relegated to guard duty. We could have been out of here an hour ago if I'd been scouting this whole time."

"Yes, or we could have been dead an hour ago, because superpowers can't save either of us from half the traps in here. Not if we run into them recklessly, which you would do while scouting at 50 kph!"

"You're being so paranoid, Harry, that you're not listening to me. if I'm running into danger, of course I'm going to take every precaution! I've been thinking and preparing, the whole time while you've been drawing that map, and I firmly believe my plan will work. But you immediately shut me down, because you're controlling and-"

"Because I hold your safety paramount, this maze is evil, and I can't lose you again!"

He saw the shock crossing her face, and felt his anger and frustration turn into a kind of fear. Across the hedges, they heard a hissing noise and turned to look.

The air was ripped open with an earth shattering boom.

###

Hermione burned with frustration, her conviction to remain calm unraveling as they traded accusations. She didn't know how much of her anger was because of Harry, or because of this maze that felt like a prison with a thousand eyes. She needed to get out, but Harry was stuck on that stupid map, trapping her in with the eerie, silent maze

But then, the world around her exploded with noise.

Her Auror training kicked in. She flung herself away from the blast, readying her wand and bracing for an attack. She tried to grab Harry to pull him to safety, but she couldn't find him. The tracker told her he was somewhere nearby.

Ears ringing, she scanned the area for a source of the explosion, but found nothing amiss, which was strange. From behind the hedge, she heard a rustling noise. Then, to her surprise, she heard a heavy sigh. "Seriously?"

"What? It's better than waiting fifteen minutes for him to find us," countered a second voice.

Hermione's heart raced, her head reeling with this new information. There were other people in the maze? But...how?

"We're supposed to be keeping a low profile," said the first voice, a female. "Any chance they don't know we're here is gone now."

"Ehh, they're watching for magical interference in the maze, not mechanical," said the second voice, a male. "A flare won't alert them unless they're watching us, in which case, we're already screwed."

Magical? Are they wizards?

Hermione crept closer, trying to catch a glimpse of them, but the hedges were too thick to see through. As she got closer, she noticed their voices sounded distorted, a little inhuman, like they were speaking through water.

She heard a popping noise, the sound of someone Apparating.

"See?" said the male voice smugly. "Told you."

The girl sighed. "The centre of the maze isn't far from here. Did you find the final clue box?"

The third voice, a deep one, said, "It's about a mile to the south. Follow me, I'll show you."

There was a sound of footfalls, and the girl said, "Let's go, we've got to get this done before sunrise and report back to Mad Eye."

Hermione gasped, clapping a hand to her mouth. They knew Mad Eye! It could be a trick...but if it wasn't, then what if they were Aurors? They could be allies, and work together to get out of here. Her fingers clenched around her wand, uncertain. All she had to do was send up a spark, and they would know she was there. But if she was wrong…

As their footfalls retreated, she felt a jolt of certainty. She had to know, had to see them at least, and her chance was rapidly fading away.

She ran down the path, hoping to catch them at an intersection, careful to leave markers of her direction. She turned several corners, navigated through multiple intersections, following the sound of their footsteps. Try as she might, she never caught a glimpse of anyone.

When she finally stopped for breath, she stumbled and fell against the hedge. As she struggled for breath, she realized she couldn't sense Harry's tracker anymore.

A cold dread settled in the pit of her stomach.

When we separate, this maze tries to kill us.

"Who's there?" said the girl's voice, inches away from her.

Hermione said nothing, her heart pounding in her chest. In the seconds of tense silence, she stared into the branches, which had thinned enough she could see through them. There was nothing on the other side.

"Come on, we're almost there," said the boy's voice.

She felt something brush her arm, and whipped around. The boy's footfalls passed right by her, but she couldn't see anyone. She hitched a panicked breath, shoulders tensed, then headed back the way she'd come.

Harry almost bumped into her as she turned the corner. "Hermione!" he cried, eyes wide. "Are you alright?"

"Harry!" she gasped, her heart in her throat. "I'm—"

He gripped her in a fierce hug. "I heard the bang and then you were gone. I couldn't sense you with the tracker, I thought..." He squeezed her tighter. "I'm just glad you're safe."

He held her for a long moment, and she felt her heart settle down, feeling safe in spite of everything.

"What happened?" he asked, pulling away slightly. "I followed the trail you left behind, but how did you end up here?"

Hermione frowned. "While we were separated, did you...see anyone in the maze?"

"Did I…" he trailed off, blinking at her. "As in a humanoid? I'm...not sure what I saw. Did you see someone?"

"Maybe?" she said. "I heard voices that mentioned where the centre of the maze is. It might have been an illusion...but if not, then we aren't alone in here."

The look on his face shifted to wariness. "And you didn't get a visual on them?" Hermione shook her head. "Did they seem hostile?"

"Not at all. They knew about magic. They mentioned Mad Eye in their conversation, said they needed to report back to him."

Harry blinked, then seemed deep in thought. "I want to ask you a question. Can I use…"

He hesitated, then shook his head. "Nevermind. Better idea, how about you tell me which direction we're going, and we can compare experiences on the way?"

"Which direction? You mean where they said the center of the maze was?"

"If you like, or wherever you want to go. I'm following your lead."

"Are you sure you trust me to make the decision?" she said, folding her arms. "I seem to remember you calling me 'reckless.'"

He winced. "Yeah, that was out of line. I'm really sorry, Hermione. This maze is like the Korriban tombs, inching me closer and closer to the dark side, and clearly I don't understand it as well as I thought. So if you have any ideas for how to get out of here posthaste, I'm listening."

Hermione shrugged, looking at her feet. "It's alright...I think the maze is getting to both of us. I can't believe I ran off without telling you, it was so stupid. So thank you for finding me, and for trusting me."

He smiled, his eyes never leaving her as she gazed around, memorizing their location. "The voices said the last gate is directly south of here. It might be a bit reckless, but...let's try to find it. If it doesn't work out, then we'll backtrack to this location, and you're free to say I told you so."

Harry nodded, and they started down the path. They turned a few corners in silence, listening to the dirt crunching under their feet. Even though they weren't fighting anymore, it was hard to think of what to say.

"So Harry, when we were separated, what did you see in the maze?"

He seemed lost in thought a moment, but finally he said, "I saw three people. They were arguing about something and mentioned a key, so I thought they must have found a gate. I tried to glimpse them through the hedges, so I could see the gate too. I didn't see a gate, but I did see three people, their faces obscured in darkness. Then...one of them started acting strange, put his hands around the others' throats. I heard a scream and that was all."

Hermione absorbed this information, her steps growing heavy. "Harry, why didn't you say this before? If it's the same three people I saw, then we could be walking into a trap."

"You're right, it might be." He stopped, turned to face her. "I wanted to give you the chance to make the decision, without feeling like I was trying to sway you one way or another. There's a lot of things about this we don't understand. I don't even know if we saw the same people, if they were from the same time period, or if they were even human at all."

He shuffled his feet. "For the record, I think you made the right choice. If they aren't the same group, then we're heading in the opposite direction from them. If they are the same group, we have reason to suspect they did find the gate. And besides, we are so far off from my map's trajectory that it makes more sense to follow your intuition, then to backtrack and chart on the map. We just have to be prepared for whatever dangers we might face at the end of our journey."

Hermione folded her arms. "For the record, Harry, I would like you to warn me before I make the decision to follow an attempted murderer. But...I think you're right. Even if it's dangerous, this path is our best option for now."

They'd continued walking for about five minutes, Harry and Hermione chatting quietly on the way. They planned for handling a confrontation, along with other emergency scenarios. They asked each other probing questions about their visions, making sure they didn't miss anything important.

"Actually, there was one thing," said Harry. "I might have misheard, everyone was shouting over each other. But I could have sworn someone said Arthur Weasley's name."

"Arthur Weasley? He works for the Muggle Artefacts Office. What could he have to do with this?"

Harry shrugged. "No idea. They said a lot of other things too, but I guess time will tell if any of it is useful."

Then they lapsed into a comfortable silence, walking and thinking. Every so often, Harry glanced over at her, but he didn't break the silence.

After ten minutes, when Hermione was just starting to worry they'd made the wrong decision, their path led them to a stop in front of a wooden door. Beside it was a red clue box.

Hermione pulled a sheet from the box. "The riddle is, 'Where does a bee's honey come from?'"

"Try belt buckle," suggested Harry.

She frowned. "You heard that in your vision, right?"

"I did. I know it doesn't make any sense, but we have ten attempts, so might as well."

With a shrug, Hermione wrote it down and sent it back through the box. She opened it again and found a key.

"Looks like you were right," said Hermione, taking the key and walking towards the gate. "It's a terrible riddle, though, since I don't think Wizards even know what a belt is."

"Yes, it's very odd," said Harry, as they put the key in the lock. "Only a Muggle would think of that cheesy riddle…"

He trailed off. "Wait a minute, isn't Arthur Weasley-"

"-obsessed with Muggles?" finished Hermione. "Do you think he wrote the riddles?"

"Not our Arthur Weasley, but in some alternate universe? One that went through with the third task, and put him in charge of writing the riddles? It's not a decision I would make, but it's a plausible hypothesis."

"Strange...so that means the people we saw in the maze knew about Arthur Weasley? Maybe they're from his timeline?"

"Maybe. Looks like they solved his riddles and then tried to kill each other." Dirt crunched under their feet as they passed through the gate. "The plot thickens."

They stepped through the gate and took a look around. They were still in a hedge maze—an inner circle with lots of turns-which signaled they were almost at the center.

Well…'almost' in the sense that now they could see their progress. After 5 minutes into their final quadrant, they still saw no clue box.

During their journey, they also watched for signs of their maze companions, while Harry rambled on about his theories.

"What if this maze is a nexus point between parallel dimensions? There's lots of signs that we aren't the first guests in here. What I can't figure out is, are the people we're seeing still alive, or some kind of time imprint? And how many more of them are there?"

"So...you think the maze might be haunted?"

"Hmm, that's a good word for it. And I wonder, what will we find in the center of this maze? Traditionally speaking, the center of a maze contains some wisdom and revelation of the truth, so I'm hoping we get some answers...but realistically we'll probably have to fight a minotaur or basilisk or something."

They lapsed into silence, watching the path ahead. Every so often, Harry glanced at her and looked away. He cleared his throat.

"So," he said. "I do believe we just had our first argument as a couple. Well, forty minutes ago now."

"Yes, I suppose we did," replied Hermione, wondering why he was bringing it up. "An important life experience, right?"

"Ha, well, I don't intend to make a habit of it," he said. "Although I do prefer direct confrontation to keeping everything bottled up. I'm already bad enough at sensing emotions, so I'd rather you just yell at me so I know how you feel."

She glanced up at him, his face flushed slightly. "But, in any case," said Harry, glancing in her direction. "Since we did argue, it would make sense to celebrate it the way other couples do. How does the saying go? 'Kiss and make up?'"

Hermione let out a soft laugh, and Harry pulled her to a stop. "Well?" he said, smiling.

"We don't have time for that," said Hermione. "You said so yourself—"

"Well, we haven't seen a hedge ring closing for about three hours or so." His arms wrapped around her. "Thanks to your brilliant leadership, we're making excellent time. Besides, after our experience of life threatening peril-"

"What peril?" She laughed. "We were briefly separated by some house plants."

"Not to mention," he continued. "Our dramatic encounter with spooky ghosts. Why, our hearts must be aflame with...adrenaline and cortisol-"

She giggled as he drew closer, but pushed back against his touch. He stopped, his smile fading a bit in confusion.

"Now Harry," she said. "I can't believe you're choosing now of all times to break your cardinal rule." She tapped her chin. "What is it again…"

"I don't believe this."

"Oh, that's right! No kissing." She pressed a finger to his nose. "Besides, imagine what would happen if we got distracted like teenagers in a horror movie…silly."

He chewed his lip, as if debating whether possible teenager horror death was worth it.

"Alright, Hermione," he said, releasing her with a frustrated sigh. "You win…for now. But just so you know, after we step into the maze's center, and I defeat our final opponent using my incredible wit and skill—"

"Our wit and skill."

"Right, of course. Well, then obviously you'll throw yourself into my arms, as the dawn breaks behind us in a dramatic blaze of passionate colour. Don't laugh, it's destiny."

She bit her lip, stifling the urge to make another snarky comment. She'd teased him enough for now.

They traveled on for a few more minutes, without hearing a word from their disembodied maze companions. The final gate asked for the answer to "the first riddle."

"Look up. What do you see?" said Hermione.

"Yeah." Harry glanced up. "We could try 'the moon' or 'the clock'"

That didn't work. Neither did 'the stars,' 'the sky,' 'the past' or anything else they tried. They were down to their last guess, and neither of them could settle on a decision. Hermione's nails dug into her palm, her eyes scanning the door for weak spots, in case she needed to try breaking it down.

"I've got it," said Harry. "The ceiling."

Hermione blinked. "Umm…"

"Listen, we said Arthur wrote these riddles, right? Well, the sky is in a certain sense like the Earth's ceiling. Anyway…I have a feeling our last clue will go through."

Hermione wrote their final suggestion, placing it in the red box.

The door unlocked.

She stood there perplexed for a few seconds, until she realized the door was probably charmed to open on the last suggestion. It was Arthur Weasley's quest, after all.

Hermione gazed ahead, fear settling over her like a shawl. Normally they could see into the new quadrant, but this time the unknown area was shrouded in a dense mist.

Harry pulled out his pouch. "Alright, umm…before we go in, we should prepare any offensive weapons and recast any protection spells. Also…" Harry reached into his bag, said, 'home' and a portkey came out. He grinned. "Looks like I was able to successfully hide a few items in my parser." He replaced it, pulled out his spell book, which he'd codenamed 'pillbox'. "I'm going to review a few protection spells, we should cast as many as we're able."

Hermione watched Harry flip through the book, and kept thinking back to what Madam Bones told her. Thousands of prophecies about the world being destroyed…Harry is in all of them…

What were they doing here? For the last few hours they'd been playing some kind of children's game, but they still had no idea as to why, and it made no sense. Life wasn't a Hogwarts quest, you didn't pass through levels and earn prizes. You struggled, and failure didn't just send you back to start, it had real consequences.

Like Tonks…

Hermione felt a weight squeezing her stomach. She could still remember what it felt like to be trapped in the mountain troll's grasp, powerless to stop the force that was consuming her. She remembered what it felt like to die, and wondered if Tonks had faced that moment alone.

She blinked hard, fighting back her tears. This was not the end. Harry had a life-giving Patronus, and once they got out of here, he would stop at nothing to bring Tonks back.

Harry was still reading, his mouth moving as he practiced a spell. She gazed at him, her heart stirring. He was the kind of person who would study an anti-choking spell, just in case someone else needed it in an emergency. While her classmates spent their money on games and treats, he spent his on first-aid kits and emergency portkeys. He would find a way to save Tonks because he believed her life mattered, not because he got anything out of it. No matter what the prophecies said, Harry was a hero.

Hermione walked over, pressing a hand on his wand arm. Standing this close, she realized that they were the same height now. He glanced up from his book, blinking under his glasses. "What's wrong?"

She pulled him to her and kissed him, and he immediately stopped everything to kiss her back. She pressed herself into him, letting the kiss become fire that spread through to her toes. After a long, breathless minute, Harry finally pulled away, pressing his forehead against hers and breathing out shakily. "What...was that for?"

"Life points," she said. "For luck."

He chuckled, gazing at her with warmth in his eyes. "Ahh. Good idea, but...you look worried."

"Of course I am. We have no idea what's behind that door, or if we'll survive it. Quests have winners but...they also have losers."

He pulled back to look at her, a strange expression crossing his face. There was a flicker of sadness, but then he smiled. "You know, this might sound silly, but this reminds me of magical item duels. I never knew what my opponent was packing, so I would do my best to prepare for every situation. That way, I was confident that no matter the outcome, I could say I tried my best. With all the insanity going on, it's comforting, in a way. So...do you have any ideas, Hermione? How can we defend ourselves against an enemy we can't see?"

"There's umm…well, there's a spell that Aurors use for protection against the elements. Fire, wind, earth and water. It's part of a litany we cast before battle. We also have a bunch of spells for use in combat, too many for me to show you now, but…"

"That's okay," he cocked a grin. "Former dueling champion, here. I think I'm good with a wand. Oh, speaking of which…" He tried to pull out something from his pouch, but nothing appeared. "Hmm, alright then, I guess no extra wand. We'll have to be careful with ours then. Can you show me the elements spell?"

After they'd cast spells to prepare, and there was nothing more to do, Harry slipped his hand into hers. "Ready? Let's go."

They stepped inside, Hermione mentally preparing herself for whatever danger lay before them.

She didn't know what she expected. A monster would be standard, but considering all the riddles, she thought it might be a sphynx. Maybe some kind of Oracle, who could explain why there were so many prophecies about the end of times. Or at least why they were in a fake, or potentially interdimensional maze.

In any case, she was not prepared at all to see a large open field, with Boris Krum standing alone beside a giant cup, arms folded.

"Harry Potter," he said, with a triumphant grin. "Your day of reckoning has arrived.

###

"Harry Potter," he said, with a triumphant grin. "Your day of reckoning has arrived."

Harry Potter stared at their opponent, mouth agape. He felt he should have some response to this, but his brain was running around in circles trying to parse out why his final opponent had taken the form of a blithering Quidditch player.

"Boris," he said finally. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to challenge you," he said, arms folded. "Tonight is your prophesied Reckoning. We will fight, Harry Potter, and you will be razed to the ground with fire."

A few seconds ticked by in silence.

"I'm sorry-what?" the words spilled out as if by force.

"Yes." He laughed. "It is me, Boris! Do I need to use simpler words? I kill you dead."

Harry's brain kept spinning, trying to process this information and returning a null response.

Until finally it clicked.

"Ooohhh," said Harry. "I get it. This is a part of your act."

Boris raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I mean, you must have scanned our brains for "enemy" and decided that Boris was the most likely candidate. You're wrong, of course, but it's an understandable mistake. Anyway, why don't you switch forms to 'death' and make this whole thing less weird."

"You think I'm lying?"

"Of course. It's statistically far more likely that you're not Boris, and instead you're—hang on, let me knock out some possibilities right now."

Harry raised his wand, "Polyfluis! Riddikulus! Hominum revelo!"

The list of spells hit the Boris shaped figure, along with a fourth silent spell—a stunner—which made him flinch back with a snarl.

"Sorry," said Harry, his voice blasé. "I just had to make sure you weren't blocking them. So, the experiments show that you're a non-Polyjuiced humanoid, which means that you might be Boris. But I'm still holding out hope that you're the mini-boss, and the real boss is actually the giant cup behind you."

"Harry," said Hermione, in warning.

"Well, I mean, come on. I could believe, based on some insane fluke of magic, that Boris ended up trapped here at the same time as us. I could even believe he'd be angry enough and stupid enough to be spoiling for a fight. But you expect me to believe that this entire maze was created by Time Itself so that I could have it out with your ex-boyfriend? No. I refuse to live in a reality where that could actually happen."

She stamped her foot. "He's not my ex-boyfriend!"

"Is ex-lover more appropriate? We did kiss twice, after all," said Boris, grinning at Harry's aghast face. "And then he kissed Ginny, my ex-girlfriend."

"Wait, what?" said Hermione, whirling on Harry. "When did that happen?"

"It was part of the apology paper thing and I'll explain later," said Harry, clearing his throat. "Now, Boris, what's this cup about? Is that supposed to be the prize for winning, or something?"

"The cup," said Boris. "Is a portkey."

"A working portkey?" clarified Harry.

"Of course," He grinned. "How else do you think I got here? Going through the maze?"

Harry narrowed his eyes at Boris, fighting back a string of nasty comebacks. From the corner of his eye, Harry could see Hermione shaking her head, and decided having an argument with Hermione's ex-something wasn't going to win him any points.

He sighed. "Look, Boris, I know we'll never be the best of friends, but let's put our differences aside for now. If you know a way out of this maze, then let's take it."

"I can leave," said Boris. "You cannot."

"I know, the prophecy. But isn't it more important to solve the problem with the giant time bomb first? After we do that, if you're still bound by a prophecy, then we can have a duel."

Harry dodged a bolt of purple fire aimed for his heart.

"Oww!" he cried, clutching his arm. "What was that for?"

"Listen. The destruction of the Ministry was predestined, for time is trying to mend itself." Boris pointed to the sky. "Do you see that moon up there? When it reaches its highest point, the world will end, unless you die first. I am the one sent to kill you."

"What? By who?"

"Time."

Harry was growing increasingly frustrated, but also a bit concerned, that Boris wasn't telling a complete lie.

"That's it," Hermione stepped forward, brandishing her wand. "Stop acting like a giant prick, Boris. Tell me, did your prophecy mention anything about having to fight me? Because that's what you're getting if you don't move aside and let us out of here."

Harry couldn't stifle a grin.

Boris glanced over at her, as if examining a spot on the wall, and shrugged. "Very well, Hermione. I'm not afraid to hurt a woman."

He shifted his stance, raising his wand. His other hand snapped off the golden chain on his neck.

Hermione fired a spell directly at him. He dodged left, missing the fire but landing right into a trap spell, binding his arms and legs.

He whispered something, and a moment later, the binding burst. He rose, his skin glowing with a glossy sheen.

Something ticked at the back of Harry's mind, an awareness that something Bad was about to happen. He fired the strongest spell he knew at Boris, something so powerful it was almost dark, fearing it was their last chance.

But by the time it landed, Boris was gone. In his place rose the hulking form of a screeching dragon.

###

Hogwarts: Wednesday, 3:05 am

It became quickly apparent to McGonagall that something was off about Luna's prophecies. A real, true prophecy was quite rare. Most were incomplete, unable to be deciphered unless they were placed in the right pattern, or seen from the right context. You could have a whole sheaf of prophecies and still have no idea what was going on. Yet Harold recited Luna's prophecies as if reading off a published story book, complete with pictures.

"Okay, so the next thing that happens is they travel through snow, wind, earth and fire. The earth one was really weird, there's these pictures of lizards with creepy bug eyes. The boy and the girl—probably Harry and Hermione—are alone until they encounter their first enemy."

"Mine is different," said McGonagall, sifting through her own notes about the labyrinth. "The prophecy states three enter the maze together. Two shall fall, the other shall rise to power."

"Maybe the third is the enemy?"

"Well…" said McGonagall, glancing at her papers with a furrowed brow. "That could fit, but my prophecies make it seem they were working together." She'd never imagined this particular prophecy had to do with Harry, of course. It had been given during Voldemort's time, and she assumed the labyrinth was metaphorical. Apparently, she was wrong. "Who is this enemy supposed to be?"

"It says their first enemy is the same as the last, but there's a picture here of a giant dragon."

"I...see." McGonagall was not sure what to think of that. "My prophecies say nothing about a first enemy. They do mention fighting a snake or a worm...again, we always assumed that enemy was Voldemort."

"Or for some extremists, it was Peter Pettigrew," chimed in Flitwick. "Mostly because his friends gave him the moniker 'Wormtail,' one of whom was the traitor Sirius Black."

"Snake, snake…" Harold rifled through his papers. "Nope...so far I haven't seen snakes mentioned at all. Just a giant dragon that definitely doesn't look happy to see them."

"Well...in that case," said Flitwick. "What happens after they encounter the first enemy?"

"Err..." said Harold. "It doesn't say. Actually, wait…oh hang on, there's two pictures beside the beast. In one I see a pile of ashes, and in the other, a crystal ball?"

McGonagall sighed. "Oh Merlin, help us all."

Author's note: Sorry for the long hiatus! My computer was broken for about two months. Good news is that I have a new computer, and I already finished the next few chapters. I just need to polish them up, and I'll be posting them soon!