A/N: Oh, I forgot to mention this earlier, but the chapter with Mrs. Mopsey... I put her in there because it was something JKR took out. Thought it would be amusing to write. If you want JKR's description of Mrs. Mopsey, go to her website jkrowling. com> and go to the extras section, I think.

Chapter 9
The 24th of June

The next few months were so uneventful that Sirius could swear he was being punished for something. There was nothing to do, nowhere to go, no one to see. When he wasn't sitting in the cave staring blankly at Buckbeak, he was out in Hogsmeade sitting on a street corner, watching the inhabitants cross the streets and hustle into shops. Occasionally, shoppers would pause to give him a sympathetic look and a hurried scratch behind the ears.

One morning, Sirius was back in the cave experimenting with how far he could bend his fingers back towards his wrist. He wondered tiredly whether with enough patience and practice and maybe a little wave of his wand if he could get his fingertips to touch the top of his arm. If only his wand wasn't still at his mother's house. But after staring at his fingers so long, the tattooed Roman numeral numbers on the backs of his fingers began to stand out against his flesh. Those numbers marked him as being a deadly and dangerous criminal, who was sentenced for life in Azkaban. Those numbers would never come off.

Sirius was just about to plunge into these depressing thoughts, when an owl came streaking into the cave. It was Hedwig. Sirius looked up her as she swooped around once and then landed in front of him.

The letter was written in Harry's hand and was written quickly, by the looks of the black ink splotches that littered the page.

Sirius read it over, his eyes scanning it so fast they seemed to be a blur. The letter described what had happened to Harry the previous night, while observing what was coming next in the third Triwizard challenge.

After Ludo Bagman had given the four champions instructions, Viktor Krum had pulled Harry aside for a private word. While they were talking, Crouch snuck up on them. Harry told Sirius that Crouch was obviously insane. He kept muttering to a tree, and then suddenly snapping back to himself to demand to see Dumbledore. Crouch kept repeating that he had done something terrible and he needed to tell Dumbledore right away.

Finally, Harry broke away to fetch Dumbledore while Krum stayed behind to watch Crouch. Harry ran into Snape in the halls, who told Harry that Dumbledore was busy. But soon Dumbledore came to Harry's aid, and Harry led him to Crouch. But once they arrived to the place at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, Crouch was gone and Krum had been Stunned.

Harry begged Sirius for some insight as to why Crouch would be sneaking onto Hogwarts grounds demanding to see Dumbledore. And what did Crouch mean by "'I… escaped… must warn… must tell… see Dumbledore… Bertha… dead… all my fault… Dark Lord… stronger… Harry Potter…'"?

Sirius, first off, was enraged that Harry dared to go to the edge of the Forbidden Forest at night all alone. He pulled out his quill and ink and started to write a reply.

Harry—what do you think you are playing at, walking off into the forest with Viktor Krum? I want you to swear, by return owl, that you are not going to go walking with anyone else at night. There is somebody highly dangerous at Hogwarts. It is clear to me that they wanted to stop Crouch from seeing Dumbledore and you were probably feet away from them in the dark. You could have been killed.

Your name didn't get into the Goblet of Fire by accident. If someone's trying to attack you, they're on their last chance. Stay close to Ron and Hermione, do not leave Gryffindor Tower after hours and arm yourself for the third task. Practice Stunning and Disarming. A few hexes wouldn't go amiss either. There's nothing you can do about Crouch. Keep your head down and look after yourself. I'm waiting for your letter giving me your word you won't stray out-of-bounds again.

Sirius

Sirius only hoped that this heartfelt warning would do of some good. But more than half of him was sure that Harry would disregard his letter without a second thought.

The next months passed rather quickly. It was almost as though the weather slapped itself in the forehead and finally realized suddenly that it was supposed to be spring, so the air got warmer and Sirius could hear birds chirping outside the cave.

But the nice weather was the last thing on Sirius's mind: the 24th of June was fast approaching. At least this time Harry had had time to prepare the charms and hexes that he might want to use. But this was bound to be a piece of cake, since Harry had done something identical to this in first year, right?

But still something was eating at Sirius that made him terribly uncomfortable in the days preceding the event. Whoever was trying to hurt Harry was on their last chance—if they waited much longer, they would miss it. With a painful lurch of the stomach, Sirius realized that he had been thinking the same thing this time last year—If I don't find you soon, Peter, I'll have missed my chance… again…

The night before the final Triwizard Tournament, Sirius folded a piece of parchment in half, intending to send Harry a good-luck card. He used a muddy paw-print to decorate the cover, and wrote a message as neatly as he could inside.

The next morning, Sirius got up early and hurried into Hogsmeade for the morning paper. He found one outside Zonko's and rushed it back to the cave. He opened the front page with a flourish. But as soon as he saw the front page, his jaw dropped.

Under a rather embarrassing picture, there was a full-length article all about Harry and how he was a disturbed and unstable teen. The whole article was distasteful, horrible and altogether hurtful. Rita Skeeter, the 'Special Correspondent', seemed to feel that Harry was not even sane enough to compete in the Task that day.

Potter, the Daily Prophet can exlusively reveal, regularly collapses at school, and is often heard to complain of pain in the scar on his forehead (relic of the curse with which You-Know-Who attempted to kill him). On Monday last, midway though Divination lesson, your Daily Prophet reporter witnessed Potter storming from the class, claiming that his scar was hurting to badly to continue studying…

"He might even be pretending," said one specialist. "This could be a plea for attention"…

Albus Dumbledore should surely consider whether a boy such as this should be allowed to compete in the Triwizard Tournament. Some fear that Potter might resort to the Dark Arts in his desperation to win the tournament, the third task of which takes place this evening.

All these claims Sirius found to be ridiculous. And Harry attempting the Dark Arts during the challenge was just too much. Sirius had all the faith in the world in Harry and Sirius inwardly hoped that Harry would win the tournament, just to show them all—just in spite of everything else that had happened this year, and to prove to everyone who doubted him that Lily and James Potter's son was no mental case.

Later that afternoon, Sirius got a message from Dumbledore. The regal-looking owl fluttered through the cave opening. It dropped the letter right in front of Sirius, gave a little hoot, and then whooshed out of the cave. Sirius scrambled for the letter, and ripped it open, glancing over his shoulder at Buckbeak, who clacked his beak.

The letter instructed Sirius to go to Hagrid's pumpkin patch promptly at seven thirty for the start of the task. Dumbledore explained that he wanted Sirius close at hand during the task. Dumbledore told him to stay in dog form, and forbade him from going anywhere near the Quidditch pitch or Harry, no matter what. If something were to happen, Dumbledore would send for Sirius and only then was Sirius allowed to leave the pumpkin patch. He seemed to be thinking along the same lines as Sirius—something bad was going to happen tonight…

Sirius scowled. It sounded like Sirius was being sent to a time out… in a pumpkin patch, of all places. Maybe he could just nip over to the pitch, just to watch a short portion of the Task. He wouldn't be seen by anyone…

Sirius decided he would but had a slight queasy feeling in his stomach when he re-read the letter: "Under no circumstances are you to leave Hagrid's yard. Do not leave the patch."

Sirius tottered towards the Quidditch pitch carefully. Everyone was already seated for the third task, and Sirius could hear their excited babbling echoing in the stadium. Sirius headed for the box where he had sat to watch Harry play Quidditch last year, and hoped it was empty. It was; what luck!

Sirius got as close to the front of the box as possible, hoping that it would shield him from view. He carefully looked over the rim to see down into stadium.

But the stadium was hardly recognizable.

Where normally there was short grass, there were hedges that reached up to at least 20 feet. The hedges grew so high, that it was impossible to make out the intended path, or the creatures stalking within. But one feature was quite obvious—there was a circle in the center of the maze, where all the paths converged—there the trophy was surely sitting patiently, waiting to be rescued by one of the four nervous students who were gathered around the entrance of the maze.

Suddenly, Ludo Bagman's voice boomed throughout the stadium. "Ladies and gentlemen, the third and final task of the Triwizard Tournament is about to begin! Let me remind you how the points currently stand!"

Sirius sat up straighter and strained to see Harry at the maze entrance.

"Tied in first place, with eighty-five points each—Mr. Cedric Diggory and Mr. Harry Potter, both of Hogwarts School!"

Sirius's eyes grew wide, as he gave appreciative barks. Harry had never told him that he was actually winning, or at least tied.

Bagman continued, though with a little less enthusiasm, "in second place, with eighty points—Mr. Viktor Krum of Durmtrang Insitute! And in third place—Miss Fleur Delacour, of Beauxbatons Academy!"

There was a polite applause for the other champions, but it was obvious that most of the crowd was supporting the Hogwarts students.

"So… on my whistle, Harry and Cedric!" Bagman replied happily, and Sirius could see him raise a silver whistle to his lips. "Three—two—one—" there was a whistle blast, and two figures moved towards the maze with their wands drawn. As soon as Harry and Cedric were within the thick walls of the hedges, two little, different colored balls of light bounced up over the tops of the hedges, indicating each person's progress. It was impossible to tell whether the yellow or purple ball represented Harry, but soon, the two balls split down different paths.

Moments later, Bagman's whistle announced that Krum was entering the maze, and a green ball of light followed him into the maze. Next, Delacour entered with a blue ball of light bobbing above her. All the champions were now within the maze.

Sirius wondered how Harry was doing, if maybe he had come across a monster yet. He kept a close eye on both the yellow and purple ball; unsure of which one was Harry. Krum and Delacour's lights were far away from each other, but Harry and Cedric passed each other a few times.

After roughly a half an hour, there was a piercing scream that rose from the hedges. Sirius could see McGonagall hurrying toward the maze, a bright red star glinting on her hat. It sounded like the girl—Fleur. Harry was now one step closer to the trophy.

About twenty minutes passed, and the green ball and the yellow ball were grouped together—Krum must have been talking to one of the other champions. But there were more screams—this time a boy's. The purple light, scrambled closer to the other two—and moments later there was red sparks hanging in the air. The yellow and purple lights separated.

The yellow light was headed fast in the right direction for the center circle. Purple seemed to have paused at one of the crossroads, but why, Sirius couldn't tell. But moments later, the purple light began to hurry towards the center as well—it was a race to touch the trophy!

There was some sort of a struggle for about ten minutes—the trophy must have been guarded by something. All of the onlookers were on the edges of their seats, waiting to see who would win the Galleons and all the glory of being the first winning champion in ages…

The two balls of light were moving slowly to the dead center of the maze. But which contestant would touch it first? In the next instant, both of the lights flowered and grew to be like fireworks—the Task was over.

The balls of light sucked back into two little balls and Sirius let out a sigh of relief.

The champions had decided to tie—Harry and Cedric had won! Sirius barked loudly, while the onlookers cheered and screamed blissfully… Sirius had been stressing this whole year over nothing; Harry was safe, the Tournament was done, and all was well…

But then both lights flickered and vanished.