I would give myself even odds in a duel against any given Death Eater. That's not so much about how good of a magical fighter I was. Sure, I had more practical magical combat experience than just about anyone that hadn't fought in the last wizarding war, including most younger aurors, but these guys had fought in that war. What it really came down to was that both the Unforgivables and Apologies bypassed shields and would take a target out if they hit, so skill level didn't much enter into it other than accuracy and dodging ability. Mostly, we'd just be playing rocket tag, with a coin flip deciding who won.

That was against one Death Eater. I was up against six. Rocket tag is no fun when you're having to dodge half a dozen rockets.

Somehow, I managed it with the first volley. The barrage of sickening green Killing Curse blasts came close enough that I could feel the tingle of the hellish magic as I threw myself away and to the ground. I was extremely worried that I wouldn't be able to get out of the way of the second, prone and with nowhere to go but down an empty hedge corridor in the dark. But it turned out the walls of the tournament maze hadn't been hardened to resist death magic. Why would they be? If one of us had won the tournament by just cutting into the middle with Unforgivables, the aurors would have had something very pointed to say at the awards ceremony.

Practically the T-junction in the maze I'd been standing in was suddenly a four-way intersection, as the spellfire blew a giant hole in the wall opposite the route to the center of the maze. Leaves and twigs showered all over, the majority going in the direction of the blast, but the top of the twenty-foot hedge got caught in the updraft and was scattered throughout. Hopefully that would be noticeable from the stands, because I didn't have time to call for help. I was too busy rolling to my feet, diving for the hole in the wall, and trying to not get cursed in the back as I moved.

It looked like the next wall was also beginning to fall apart into a giant hole, as some of the killing curses had been behind enough they'd sailed right through the disintegrating first wall to hit the next. I assumed I was somewhere near the middle of the pitch and running across the width of the field rather than the length, so at this rate I might be able to escape the maze just from Death Eaters blowing holes as they missed me. "Hold still and die like a wizard, Dresden!" Crouch's voice called from behind me as another flash of green just missed me and finished clearing the hole into the next layer of the maze.

"What's the plan, here, Barty?" I yelled back as I dove through the new hole and rolled to the side, barely hanging onto my staff. I was glad my blasting rod was already stowed, as I fumbled in my belt trying to decide whether to go for my Apologies focus or something trickier. "I know you don't like me, but it seems weird to get arrested just to take another shot."

"We would have safely kidnapped you with a portkey cup," he admitted, the voice coming closer warily. I'd killed my own light sources so this whole fight was taking place in whatever light from the stadium could filter down over the high hedges. "But, well, that was a cock up. Wards were still down to allow portkeying in and out, though. We'll kill the champions, burn the maze, dark mark, home for tea."

"Have you considered just not murdering people?" I asked, then yelled, "Depulso!" as I banished a handful of lead shot at the silhouette that moved around the hedge to try to sight on where my voice was coming from.

"Protego! Shit! Ow!" Crouch yelled, turning sideways to avoid taking my magical buckshot full on but still getting hammered as it went through and around his shield. Most wizards fighting wizards didn't put enough energy in their shields to stop physical objects.

I was already moving, so another blast of green light damaged the hedge behind me as one of the Death Eaters behind Crouch took his own shot at me. From nearby, in the direction of my attackers, I heard someone (probably Dolohov, given the accent), warn, "Watch out! It's a dementor!"

There was general yelling from the other dark wizards, who certainly couldn't manage a patronus, but I was stumped. I didn't think there was any way Dumbledore would have allowed a dementor to be used as an obstacle, especially after the previous year's debacle. But there was a boggart, which would likely manifest as a dementor to former Azkaban inmates. I grinned as that gave me an idea. I didn't blame the sphinx for retreating when killing curses started to fly, but other creatures in the maze weren't nearly as intelligent. It was time to engineer some backup.

The summoning charm didn't really work on most living beings. I'd managed to summon Neville's toad when I'd met him pretty much entirely because toad familiars were specifically useful for practicing spells on. Animate creatures were generally able to twist their way out of the pull pretty quickly, even if they weren't magic resistant like many magical animals. But Mathilda had taught me a variation that was sometimes used by the Ministry's creature wranglers. It didn't so much yank them your way as annoy them and give them an idea of the direction of the annoyance. Since you generally didn't want a fantastic beast showing up pissed off at you, it didn't see much use.

But that's exactly what I wanted, in this particular circumstance.

While I was casting the spell, I'd noticed that the barrage of green lights had dwindled a lot. Between being caught up with the "dementor" and general magical stamina, I'd gotten a breather. But with six of them, they could multitask between trying to figure out how to handle a dementor without a patronus and chasing me, so a few moments later, two of them made a tactical entry into the corridor I'd been retreating down and started lobbing less-energy-intensive curses my way, forcing me to shield.

And one of them was tall, skinny, and still had a notable limp. Perfect. "Hey Nott!" I yelled at him. "I didn't think you were dumb enough to go along with this kind of stupid attack."

"It was time to see your smug face wiped from the planet," he snarled at me between spells that splashed off my shield.

"My smug face?" I argued. "You're the poster child for if you make a face too much it will freeze that way."

"Do you all always allow Dresden to bait you like this?" the other Death Eater asked. I guessed it was one of the Lestrange brothers. He might have been smarter than I'd given either credit for.

I'd been slowly falling back, drawing them deeper down the corridor and past the latest hole they'd created into the outer ring, and I tried to hide a grin as I felt the ground shudder and both suddenly turned to see what was rolling up behind them. Sure enough, the blast-ended skrewt crashed through the gap in the hedge and I dropped my summons, two obvious targets in between me and the ornery creature.

Shrieking in surprised fear sounds really interesting through those metal Death Eater masks, it turns out.

I started lobbing my own spells downrange as Nott and (probably) Lestrange were suddenly in a close-quarters fight with an angry giant magical arthropod, forcing them to scramble and shield. Nott, who preferred to be as far from his opponents as possible, wasn't ready, and went down nearly instantly as he shielded one of my stunners only to get body-tackled beneath the beast with a scream and a sound of cracking bones. It couldn't have happened to a more deserving guy.

Lestrange was more agile, and managed to at least dodge until the beast was blocking me from getting at him. He started falling back and calling for help. I managed to line up a shot and stun one of the other Death Eaters that was charging through as backup, and drew my unicorn horn focus and waited.

The skrewt almost managed to tackle the Lestrange brother, but he had clearly built up his hate very quickly and landed a killing curse into its underbelly as it reared up to smash him. You know how creatures void their bowels when they die? When skrewts do that, it's basically ignited napalm. I winced as the pool of fire quickly swamped Nott's twitching body and the Death Eater I'd stunned.

As I was lining up my shot to hit the Lestrange with an exorcism charm, I heard someone shout, "Riddikulus!" from where the rest of the Death Eaters were standing, so they'd clearly figured out the boggart finally. I was running out of time, but at least I had a lake of fire in between us.

"He got Nott and Selwyn!" Lestrange yelled to his remaining companions.

"Guess that means we're down to you yo-yos from Nocturne Alley, huh?" I shouted at him, happy for the clarification of which four bad guys were left. "Excorio!"

Sadly, he was as decent at dodging as he was realizing the point of my patter, and he managed to duck as my charm passed over his head. There was a shout of "Avada Kedavra!" from the other side of the hedge to my right, as another hole was blown in the foliage, allowing them access to flank me. I had not counted on them figuring that out so quickly.

Fire pool and a smart opponent in front of me. At least one but possibly three bad guys on my right. Hedge on my left. And I'd been opening myself up to fire if I tried to retreat further past the new hole in the wall. I was in a pretty tight spot, with only the school's fortune wards and vague belief in the rule of three helping me out.

I backed into a corner to at least protect my back, raised a shield, and hoped for an easy shot, but winced as I heard another shouted "Avada Kedavra!" from the other side of the new hole…