I don't own anything, but I do own this story.

Enjoy.


The Hell of Fourth Year.

Charlotte lifted her one eye and scanned the surrounding trees, remembering from back in Second Year when she and Weasley had ventured into the forest - oh, she wished she had found a completely different way to discover the truth of Hagrid's innocence instead of visiting Aragog and his hungry children; she wasn't afraid of spiders, indeed they had been her friends in the Cupboard, but there was just something about the relentless way they had come at her and Weasley on that night where they'd learnt from a different account about what had happened when the Chamber of Secrets had been opened, but at the time she hadn't had the experience to find answers any other way since her methods of investigation were rather basic, and involved visiting and asking people the relevant questions - acromantulas had a habit of descending to the ground from high heights, so she wasn't surprised when she saw the spiders were indeed using that tactic here.

"Guys, use the most powerful fire spell you use and spread it around you!" she said as loudly as she could to the other Champions while she kept her voice as low as it could go to not alert the spiders, glancing over her shoulder although she valiantly did her best to keep the acromantulas in sight at all times.

The other Champions looked at her for a second before they shot the most powerful fire spells while she turned back and shot fire vortexes at the acromantulas that were descending. The combined fire spells had taken the acromantulas by surprise, and many of them screamed in agony as their bodies caught fire, but the intense light and heat of the flames made it virtually impossible for Charlotte to see just how many of them had been killed by the intense flames.

Once the initial blast of the flames died down, revealing the smouldering mess of burning trees and half incinerated bushes, Charlotte looked out into the forest, and she quickly saw the gleaming eyes of the acromantulas that had either managed to survive or had just kept back when they had picked up on the danger, which appeared almost like droplets of black ink against the burning forest. The huge spiders were drawing themselves back from the flames, but Charlotte's eyes widened when she saw the army of acromantulas coming out of the forest.

"You have to admire some magical creatures; you can burn them, impale them through the heads, curse them, and some of them will still come back for more!" she commented to the other Champions.

"They've surrounded us," Cedric called. "I can see them everywhere!"

Fleur was looking around herself with terror, already picturing herself as a dinner for a giant spider. "If we could just force our way through-!"

"We can't. They've surrounded us on all sides," Charlotte interrupted the French witch before she turned to their Durmstrang competitor. "Viktor, do you remember the route on the map?"

"This isn't the time, Potter!" Krum was throwing some particularly darker piercing curses at the acromantulas swarming towards them. Some of the curses didn't hit the acromantulas, who were agile and fast on their feet enough to avoid the curses, but some of the other acromantulas weren't so lucky, and Charlotte could hear some of their high pitched shrieks.

"I meant how much further would we need to go to reach it if we managed to get through the acromantulas. Think, for fuck's sake!"

Viktor paused in his spell casting when the demand from the younger Champion reached his attention, and he needed a moment to think through the adrenaline rushing through his system. "I'd say it would take…five minutes. I can't be sure."

"We'd never make it," Fleur pointed out as she raised her wand, concentrating on the acromantulas she could see already before she pointed her wand and silently cast a blasting curse. It hit one of the acromantulas and the force the spell caused the spider's head to explode. Its body dropped to the ground instantly, but while it surprised the others it did not last forever; they were still coming, closer and closer towards the four Champions. "Even if we can get through the gap, they'll just come after us."

"That means we'll have to stop them here," Charlotte finished the train of thought, looking out at the forest, and she jumped just in time as one particularly large acromantula leapt out. Charlotte was slightly taken by surprise, but it was a testament to her training and animagus form she was able to survive.

"Hello," she said to the spider, "haven't we met before?"

She flicked her wand and the acromantula stiffened when a red glow surrounded it and it seemed to vanish. Cedric and the rest of the Champions saw the glow, and they had turned just in time to see the acromantula seemingly disappear.

"Where did it go?" Cedric asked her.

"Look down at the ground."

Cedric and the others did, but only after they had managed to push the acromantulas they were facing back. Charlotte lifted her wand and she levitated something off of the ground. It was a spider the size of a clementine, but it had been twisted and crushed.

"What was that spell?"

"Tissue Compression Elimination. Something of my own creation," Charlotte said shortly, her grim tone telling Cedric she hadn't planned on revealing the spell in the first place. But she didn't have time to go any further, because two more acromantulas jumped out. Cedric and the other Champions watched in shock as Charlotte lifted her wand. The acromantulas shrieked in agony as their bodies were bathed in blue-white light which flashed into the negative before they collapsed and rolled over in their death throes.

Charlotte's wands roared as she used the same spell, illuminating trees and bushes as they flashed with a negative light, stoking the flames even more while setting other trees and bushes which had somehow managed to escape the combined fire spells earlier, but now they were unlucky as the spell Charlotte was using was more refined and powerful. And since the spellfire expanded through the air, the acromantulas had a hard time avoiding the blasts. The air became thick with the shrieks of acromantulas as they were hit by the spell.

"Another spell of your own invention, Charlotte?" Cedric asked wryly as he stuck to using spells in his own repertoire. He was curious about the spells, and he wondered just how effective they were. At the same time, he wondered just how many more spells she had in her own repertoire, but he didn't ask. This was not the time to ask questions.

"How did you guess?"

"I don't suppose you can teach us those spells?" Fleur asked, gritting her teeth as a particularly large acromantula came out of the undergrowth. She wondered when the girl had come up with those spells, but she could see the effectiveness behind the second one although the first one she wasn't sure about.

"Sorry, not right now. In any case, your wands would need to be specially adapted to cast the spells, and you'd also need to know how to control them," Charlotte shrunk two more acromantulas down to the size of oranges before she blasted a tree from its base and then magically levitated it upwards. She then banished the uprooted tree out into the forest before she used a transfiguration spell which transformed the tree before it exploded. Fleur cried in shock, waving her wand and brought up a shield to protect herself.

"What was that?" she demanded over the din of more pained shrieks from the acromantulas.

Charlotte paused while she fired a chain of piercing curses at several acromantulas who'd appeared in her line of sight. "I transfigured that tree from wood into glass before exploding it in the centre to concentrate the blast. Some of the glass will be large chunks the size of shovels, while smaller pieces will be no bigger than coins."

Fleur looked at the youngest Champion in surprise and more than a little fear. "You really don't do things by half, do you?"

"No," Charlotte's wand blasted another acromantula to the ground as its body flashed in the negative before it lay on the ground, dead. "I learnt the hard way we live in a harsh, unkind world; forget all the crap you were taught by your parents, it doesn't prevent you from hearing about murders, rapes, tortures, thefts. I've felt it first hand, Fleur. I always research spells to protect myself, and those I love and care for."

Charlotte turned around to concentrate on the fight, and just in time because it seemed like the forest was churning out more and more of the acromantulas. The forest was literally pulsating with them as they came towards the Tri-wizard Champions.

"Such power," one of the slightly older and larger acromantulas' spoke in an alluring tone that made Charlotte certain this particular giant spider was a female. "Such strength of will….you will make wonderful food-!" the acromantula was saying before it let out a terrible shriek as it's body flashed with negative light only this time it was more intense, and the stench of something flesh and blood reached the nostrils of the Champions.

"I am not food," Charlotte's voice was offended before she pointed her wands out and conjured a firestorm spell around herself and the Champions, mentally controlling the flames with the help of her skill in the mind arts while she used her occlumency to fend off any distracting thoughts. When she had learnt of this spell, she had quickly mastered it when she had discovered the basics. She had always thought that one day she could find herself either trapped into a house, or locked up, but anyway she had mastered the spell.

When she had met the ghosts of the Founder's, Charlotte had learnt it was possible to use the mind arts to control the flames using the power of the mind since the flames were a product of her own magic.

Charlotte closed her eye and concentrated.

The Champions and the audience worldwide watched in shock as the walls of pure burning flame moved backwards, incinerating trees and bushes, and acromantulas who shrieked in surprise and terror as they tried to escape, but the flames shot outwards engulfing the forest and the acromantulas before they died down. Charlotte coughed and spluttered when the flames died down, collapsing to the ground and shaking from the use of so much of her magic, waving a hanky in front of herself as the hot ash drifted into her nose.

"That was careless, Charlotte!" Cedric said angrily, although his hands shook out of the concern he felt for her as he knelt next to her while Fleur followed, slightly more hesitantly. "Using so much of your magic like that-."

"I know," Charlotte gasped, keeping her one remaining eye closed underneath her sunglasses. "I hadn't expected or intended I would use up so much of my magic so quickly."

"You should rest," Cedric said in concern, his anger abating although he was still annoyed. "We can stay here a minute if you need to-."

Charlotte waved a hand to kill the idea quickly. "I'll be alright," she said, pausing for a second while she concentrated and slowly rose to her feet shakily. She staggered for a moment when she reached her full height, but she regained her balance through sheer force of will. "In any case, I think we should keep moving."

"Surely we've dealt with the acromantulas?"

"Maybe," Charlotte whispered while she tried to keep herself from collapsing to the ground again. "But there could still be others, and don't forget; just prior to coming into the forest, I saw someone's silhouette. I don't want to meet them."

Viktor Krum came over to them. "I can't see any more of the spiders," he told them. "But Potter is right; we should keep moving to save the hostages."

The Champions moved off further through the forest while Cedric stayed as close to Charlotte as he could. Fleur did the same, while Viktor just remained close by. As they walked, the Champions had to admit they were impressed with just how much of the place Charlotte had incinerated with her firestorm spells. It was slow going considering Charlotte had lost a good portion of her magical strength in conjuring and maintaining the firestorm, never mind projecting it outwards, but they hadn't expected or imagined the fire spell to be projected so far out.

The Champions weren't the only ones amazed, either. Around the world, witches and wizards who had studied and wielded magic for decades, some of them even longer than Albus Dumbledore and Tom Riddle, were shocked that a witch of Charlotte's age was capable of magical control of that magnitude. While many of them were understandably concerned about what the girl would turn into as she reached her magical maturity, they were willing to give her the benefit of the doubt; many of them were old enough and wise enough to know that not every powerful witch or wizard who appeared could turn dangerous, but they were aware of many other witches and wizards who wouldn't have their wisdom since they had seen it so many times before, would be wary and they would judge Charlotte Potter as a dangerous dark witch just by witnessing that display alone, although her spells proved she was capable of much more.

Finally, they arrived in a clearing that had avoided the firestorm. When they stepped out, they found themselves blinking when the sun seemed to come out. In the centre of the clearing was a table made out of stone, roughly hewn, and it came up to their waists. On top of it was a goblet.

Viktor walked ahead and he picked it up, noticing something else on the table the others hadn't noticed yet. He picked it up, showing another piece of parchment.

"'Congratulations,'" he read aloud, a tone of frustration creeping into his voice. "' You have finished the first level of the Second Task. By working together, you have proven your mental maturity and blah-blah-blah. The goblet on the table is a portkey which will take all of you to the next level as soon as all of you touch it."

Charlotte sat on the table and shook her head, angry with herself for her weakness. "Can we wait for a bit?" she asked.

"But the hostages-!"

"Have been waiting for Merlin knows how long," Charlotte pointed out. "All we need to do is wait for a bit. In the meantime, we can all have a chat."

The other Champions were surprised. "A chat?" Fleur repeated incredulously. "My little sister can be hurt for all I know, and you just want to chat? There's something seriously wrong with you-!"

"Well excuse me," Charlotte's voice, although still weakened by the use of so much of her magic, was still harsh enough to get through to Fleur. "Excuse me for not having a sister so I don't know how it feels. But bear something in mind…knowing one of the organisers/judges like I do, we can expect a lot more to get through before we even reach that stage."

"What makes you so sure we will have other levels?" Krum asked.

Charlotte sent him a withering look. "Well, the note under the goblet for one thing. I'm not saying there could be more, but you should be prepared for it. In any case, Dumbledore would want all of us to be challenged in some manner, right? And there is only one way I know how to do it, and that's to provide the Champions, aka us, with more than two levels."

Fleur was looking at Charlotte suspiciously. "You're very paranoid about Dumbledore, aren't you?" she asked.

"Years of experience," Charlotte said grimly as she recalled all the years she had been at Hogwarts - that mess with the Philosopher's Stone, his inactions during the mess with the Chamber of Secrets, not saying anything about Sirius before and after the proof had arrived that her waste of space deadbeat bastard of a godfather was in fact innocent and had spent a decade locked in a dank, filthy prison in Azkaban for nothing, and even years before that, and she recalled all those dark years she had been at Privet Drive before her escape.

Something Fleur had said earlier entered Charlotte's mind. "What makes you think they've got your sister?" she asked mildly, hoping her soothing tone would convince the older witch not to fly off the handle.

When the subject came up it was obvious Fleur was nervous and had only been lashing out earlier. "I went to check on her earlier, but I couldn't find her, and Madame Maxime refused to answer my questions about where she had gone. I'd assumed my parents had taken her but I would have been told, and when Dumbledore mentioned hostages-."

"You realised what had happened," Cedric finished, looking sympathetically at his fellow Champion.

Fleur smiled at Cedric, but her eyes were still haunted by the thought of what had happened to her sister. "Who do you think they took?" she asked.

Cedric sighed. "I don't know," he replied, looking away while he tried to run through his head the possible guesses before he clearly gave up. "But I am worried."

"We all are," Viktor said pointedly, folding his arms and scowling although they could see by his posture he was angry and worried himself. He turned to Charlotte, who was looking at them all behind her sunglasses. "Who do you think they took for you, Potter?"

Charlotte looked away with a humourless chuckle that was more of a snort. "I don't know," she answered. "My entire family, barring one or two distant relatives I found out about last year, is dead, murdered by that psychotic creep who's the king of his own little world. And that includes any muggle relations of my mother. I think its someone I know; it would make sense given how much of a hard-on for forgiveness Dumbledore has, so one of them is the obvious candidate, although if its Ron Weasley, I will just turn away and leave him."

"The boy who almost wrecked the Yule Ball?" Fleur folded her own arms. "Why did he do that, exactly? I mean, I overheard what you said during the ball, but I didn't get the full story.."

"Dumbledore spun him some ridiculous lie Ron and I were going to become husband and wife," Charlotte shook her head. "I sometimes think the man's brain is off to Mars with the rubbish muggle sweets he eats. Ron Weasley has never been my favourite person. I first met him on the express in my first year; he came into the compartment I was sitting in, and he spun a terrible lie about everywhere else being full. I didn't believe him, but I let him sit down anyway. Anyway, he said to me there was no dark witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin. I didn't believe him there. It didn't sound logical, so many cruel people going through just the one house. It made no sense to me since everyone who goes down that slippery slope would go through Slytherin; they might be smart, they might be brash, or they might be hardworking. All of those are traits of the other three Hogwarts Houses. Coincidentally, I had heard that stupid belief before, from Hagrid, the Hogwarts groundskeeper. He was the one who gave me my letter instead of a teacher," Charlotte explained, "but over the course of that one year, Ronald's habits disgusted me, and he hated my cat with a passion even though Nightstar was smart enough not to go too close to the bastard.

"But over the years….I dunno," Charlotte shook her head while she tried to choose the right words to describe Weasley without letting on she had known for a long time he had been Dumbledore's spy. "It was second year that I saw a prelude of things to come."

"What do you mean?"

Charlotte opened her mouth, but Cedric got there first. "She means when the basilisk began attacking the rest of the school, right Charlotte?"

"Yep. I was one of the first people to discover Filch's cat who'd been petrified by the basilisk, her tail hanging from a torch sconce. To cut a long story short, everyone thought I'd had something to do with it, so they were suspicious, and after another few attacks everyone became convinced I was the one behind it."

"Why, what happened?"

"Gilderoy Lockhart, peacock, fraud, and con-artist extraordinaire, started a duelling club, but I was forced to pair with another self-important bastard who summoned a snake. I warded it off after the con-artist only angered it more with a spell, and I was forced to speak to it."

"You're a Parselmouth?" Fleur gasped.

"There's nothing wrong with Parseltongue; yes, there are dangerous spells, and many practitioners have used it for terrible things, but I once visited India with my family during a Quidditch tour," Viktor commented. "I saw a native witch who used the language to collect snake venom and to allow children the means to touch them with them getting hurt."

Charlotte looked at the Bulgarian wizard with surprise. "India…mm, I should go there sometime, see it for myself. Anyway, I don't use that power for what you might think. In any case, I had no idea it was considered evil. How could I? I had spent most of my time trying to discover more about magic. Yeah, I had discovered my parseltongue ability on a trip to the zoo a few years before I'd gone to Hogwarts, so I had pushed it out of my mind," Charlotte said.

"What else happened with Weasley?" Viktor, seeing that they were veering off course, decided to interrupt before they were here all day. "I mean, it's clear you don't like him-."

"I don't, but that year there was a lot of tension between us since he has a black and white view of the world like so many other people. I overheard him whispering about me, and he even stated I was a dark witch like the rest. For the next year, he acted as if nothing had happened except he had discovered his teenage hormones, and let me tell you his attempts at getting me for a date were pitiful. He kept saying things like "Lottie, you're a girl, right? So how 'bout we go out together since as the Girl Who Lived, you are quite the catch?" How pathetic can you get?" Charlotte grimaced while the other Champions winced.

Viktor shook his head. "It's amazing how someone in a different country can have clones in others," he observed. "I've had people like that in Bulgaria. Dozens of fans who only want me for my fame, nothing more."

"Something similar has happened to me as well," Fleur whispered. "I lost dozens of friends when my Veela aura came out, and my friends became jealous when boys flocked to me and not to them."

Charlotte looked sympathetically at the French Champion. She still wasn't sure just how warm the other girl was going to be, but maybe with a bit of work things between them would improve. "But you weren't interested in them, were you?"

"No," Fleur shook her head in the negative. "Some of them were very…physical, you might say; they kept trying to tug me away to have sex with me. Others…well, they would gawk stupidly at me. After a while, I portrayed myself as an Ice-Queen, for protection, but it still doesn't work half the time."

"That's more or less what I've had to do," Charlotte commented. "The number of boys who's wanted me for my fame is staggering."

Cedric looked around at everyone. "Do you think its time where we should keep moving?" he asked.

XXX

When the Portkey deposited them all in somewhere dark, Fleur took a moment to let her mind and body adjust to the new location after being thrown about like that before she took note of where they were, and she lit the tip of her wand with a silently casted lighting spell. She wasn't the only one; the others lit up their own wands as well, and the French Veela noted that Charlotte Potter had lit her wand second.

As soon as Fleur took note of the younger Champions' face, she wondered if it would be better to make peace with the girl who had apparently gone through so much - she wasn't entirely sure what to make of the whole growing up on the streets thing, but after she had seen that memory of the basilisk, Fleur was willing to give Charlotte the benefit of the doubt, even if she didn't entirely trust the younger witch.

For a long moment, Fleur thought about Charlotte, and what she needed to do next with the younger witch.

Fleur reflected on her 'dislike' for the younger witch, and she knew she had seriously misjudged Charlotte. A lot of the reasons came from the stories written about her 'adventures,' it was as if Charlotte hadn't had enough out of life, and she simply found it impossible to not seek more. But also from Britain were stories of how she had done this and there were other things she had heard about Charlotte which had just made the older French witch see the girl with nothing but disgust, and she had done that which made the rumours the Girl Who Lived was no more than an attention-seeking brat.

It had all changed when she had seen for herself during the Weighing of the Wands what the truth was. Fleur had honestly thought Charlotte had been milking the 'story' her eye had been destroyed, even though she had been present at the time of Dumbledore's little speech in the Great Hall which offered proof Charlotte hadn't put her name in the Goblet of Fire. But with the ceremony, she had put the whole thing to the back of her mind. When she had seen Charlotte walk in, wearing those sunglasses, she had thought the girl was milking the whole thing, and she had had enough….only for it to blow up in her face, but seeing that empty cavity where her eye should have been…

How could anyone allow it?

Fleur had been horrified, shaken by the sight of the cavity and the damage the spell, whatever the curse was since there were dozens of spells that could have caused that level of damage, had done to the surrounding tissue around the injury, and she hadn't exactly taken Charlotte's return insult back very well, but it had left her shaken up. A part of Fleur had admitted to herself that, in hindsight, she should have said something more, maybe offer an apology, but the ceremony hadn't given her the chance, and then listening to the way Charlotte described the situation of Hogwarts….

She hadn't really had a good impression of Albus Dumbledore, but seeing their expressions as Charlotte spoke in that room, it did put things into perspective. And not in a good way.

What kind of school would allow the teachers to let the students get away with that? Surely it had occurred to Charlotte's Head of House to step in, but then Charlotte had said Professor McGonagall had the power to stop Dumbledore. But she hadn't.

Fleur had been tempted to try to seek Charlotte out, but when she had seen what the girl had done in the First Task, it had made Fleur think Charlotte was a homicidal maniac. But she'd had time to think when she had been on the ground injured, hopeless, before she'd even gotten started about what she was going to do, but she had been indecisive.

She had been horrified, like everyone else when that vile redheaded boy had attacked Charlotte and Cedric during the Yule Ball. She had also been disgusted that Albus Dumbledore had even put the boy up to it, and she could more or less see from Charlotte's perspective why the dark-haired witch was repulsed herself. Why would someone of Albus Dumbledore's prestige poke his nose into the affairs of his students and let it explode in such a disturbing manner? If this was normal, then Fleur was eternally grateful herself and Gabrielle was attending Beauxbatons.

"You're worried about your sister?"

Fleur lifted her head in surprise at the question, and she found herself looking into Charlotte's face, and she had to do her best not to shudder; with the way Charlotte was standing with the lit wand with the darkness of where they were in the backdrop, her sunglasses and the short hair somehow gave her a more sinister appearance. "What?"

"I said you're worried about your sister," Charlotte repeated, shifting around a bit so she was directly facing Fleur. "You've been standing there for a minute; Viktor and Cedric have gone on."

Fleur cursed her lack of attention in the task since she had no idea what was going on. "Among other things," she admitted, unsure of whether or not she should tell Charlotte about her thoughts.

"Oh?" Charlotte's tone made it clear she was only asking out of politeness, but Fleur didn't doubt the other girl didn't care either way. At that moment, Fleur decided to be honest.

"I'm sorry," Fleur said softly.

Fleur doubted she had ever seen Charlotte appear so surprised. "Sorry? For what?"

"When I judged you, referred to you as 'leetle girl,' it was because I was angry because I thought you had deliberately tricked your way into the Tournament for more fame," Fleur began, watching Charlotte's face as she spoke. "And I believed the lies about you that I'd heard, that you were talentless, that you liked getting into trouble, and you never did anything for yourself."

"I've read the stories," Charlotte held up a hand. "Why do you think I took joy in what I did to the Daily Prophet? I've known about it for a long time; someone in Hogwarts has been leaking to the press I was doing one thing or another. I didn't do anything because I had planned otherwise."

"You'd planned otherwise?" Fleur repeated, looking at the girl speculatively. "What did you have in mind?"

"Questions later," Charlotte interrupted and she looked around herself. "Right now, we have a sewer to deal with."

"A sewer?" Fleur repeated in horror before she finally noticed the disgusting stench around them. "This is a sewer?"

"Yeah, didn't you notice the smell as soon as the Portkey brought us here?" Charlotte looked at Fleur that, even without the sunglasses, made it clear the younger witch was surprised Fleur hadn't picked it up quicker. "Come on, we've got to get after the guys and find out what's down here with us."

"What makes you think there's something down here?" Fleur asked as she followed Charlotte, only just avoiding a particularly suspicious-looking seepage of water.

"Because it's part of the Task."

XXX

It didn't take long for Charlotte or Fleur to catch up with Viktor and Cedric. The two young men were standing over something on the ground, and at the first sound of the two witches approaching, they turned around; whether or not it was out of some masculine necessity, Viktor and Cedric instantly tried to hold them back so they didn't see what they had found, but they had underestimated Charlotte's agility. She slipped past them and she was kneeling down next to whatever it was.

Fleur looked past Viktor and saw with her own eyes what it was while everyone around the world watched on. Fleur screamed in fright before she clapped a hand to her mouth while she closed her eyes so she could banish the hideous images in her mind.

Lying on the ground was the half-eaten remains of something, and Fleur wasn't sure if it was a human being or an animal. Everything was half-eaten anyway, and she couldn't see any signs of it being either.

"It's a dog," Charlotte announced, sounding like she was trying very hard to keep her own vomit down while she spoke. "I can see the head."

Fleur shuddered, feeling physically sick just thinking about it.

Charlotte stood up, waving a hand across her face; clearly whatever type of dog it was had to smell awful. She looked around herself, holding up her wand so she could illuminate every detail of the sewer they were in. "And it's only a few minutes from where we arrived, so it must have been left here to let us know what to expect."

"You mean we're going to be eaten?" Cedric asked, sounding revolted.

"Yeah, that's not what worries me, though. I've been in a sewer before, I've just realised there's something missing from this scene."

"What's that?"

Charlotte turned to gaze at Viktor and she slipped off her sunglasses for a moment so he could see her solemn and worried expression. "Where are the rats? Sewers and rats go together amazingly, and there's more than enough scraps of meat on this carcass," she pointed carelessly towards the dog, "so where are they?"

As much as Fleur wished she could do otherwise, she looked down at the ground, forcing herself not to throw up at the sight of the mangled and half-eaten dog. She realised Charlotte was right, there weren't any rats, but she hadn't noticed because she had been grossed out.

Cedric cleared his throat, visibly nervous about what could be down here with them. "We'd better get a move on and find the Portkey that'll get us out of here," he said.

"Wonderful idea," Charlotte said quickly and she slid her sunglasses back on over her face, while the other Champions agreed with Cedric, and they began heading out. They hadn't gone too far when they stopped when they heard a rumbling sound.

"What's that?" Fleur asked.

"I don't know," Cedric replied while Viktor grunted, and held out his wand so he was ready for anything.

They went on their way only to come into an enormous chamber. The moment they stepped in, Charlotte staggered back a little at the stench while Cedric looked at her with concern. "What's wrong?" he asked, but before Charlotte could respond Fleur screamed. Instantly the other Champions held out their wands, and they looked with horror at what Fleur had noticed.

They had walked into a massive chamber with the ground covered with mattered, filthy rushes of hay that even in the dim lighting which looked disgusting and discoloured. But in heaps, picked clean of meat, were a number of skeletons, bones. There were so many of them that none of the Champions could clearly see, not that a few of them wanted to, where they had come from. Unfortunately, as they used their wands to investigate the chamber they were in, they spotted a skull they all knew came from a human.

Charlotte sniffed the air again, and she stepped back in alarm. "No, they couldn't have!" she hissed.

"What, what is it?"

But Charlotte wasn't listening. "Now it makes sense," she growled, sounding more like a feral wild cat more than a human being. "The lack of rats, that dog, this place, and that stench! What kind…what kind of a human being would do something like this? It's an abomination!"

Cedric had had enough. He forcibly grabbed Charlotte's shoulders and spun her around, knowing that he was playing a dangerous game since Charlotte was capable of tearing him to bits. "Charlotte, listen to me," he said as firmly but soothingly as he could. "Enough! What is happening?"

Charlotte glared dangerously at Cedric, but she calmed down and relaxed. "Can't you smell it? The stench of the sewer is overpowering, yeah, but in here it's easy to pick up. This is a rat's nest. Somewhere in this sewer is a giant rat!"

"Oh, come on, Potter," Viktor snorted derisively. "There can't be.."

But Charlotte didn't let up. She glared viciously at the Bulgarian Champion. "I'm deadly serious. Look around you, Krum. We are in its nest. It's gonna come back here, sooner or later, and I don't wanna be here when it does turn up."

"Are you scared?"

"I once saw a homeless man who'd suffered a terrible accident which crippled him being eaten by rats," Charlotte snapped, her hackles raising instantly at the derisive tone. "I didn't know him, but I knew he couldn't move. I was sharing a shelter with him and two others. We all saw it. He was lying on his side, but when we went over to offer him food, we saw little hints of movement…and then we saw the rats. They were swarming over his legs before they reached other parts of his body. He woke up and discovered he was being eaten alive. They tore little chunks of him off, eating him, opening him up. You saw that dog, Viktor! Look around this chamber! This thing has killed maybe a dozen humans! Do you want to be its next meal?"

Viktor was about to say something derisive, but he stopped when the rumbling came again. It was closer now. Almost like it was only a few feet away. Suddenly they heard something else, a high pitched angry squealing sound before they heard a ruffling sound near…it was coming from one of the entrances.

The Champions turned and looked in horror as, out of the darkness, a massive form appeared, squealing angrily as its nest was disturbed. The four Champions backed away as the rat slinked in, gaping in horror at the size of it.

They were trapped.


I couldn't resist adding the Tissue Compression Elimination thing, which I had taken from Doctor Who as the Master used the technique as his calling card, and the other spell was taken from the Daleks.