(note) Almost done! Is Fleur left or right-handed? I'm not sure…

Eyes of Blue

Chapter 7

"We are going to be patrolling the outside of the maze," said Professor McGonagall to the champions. "If you get into difficulty, and wish to be rescued, send red sparks into the air, and one of us will come and get you, do you understand?"

All of the champions nodded silently as they waited for the last task to commence. Nobody spoke, in fact, nobody even wanted to say a 'good luck' to each other before having to go into the large, 20-foot tall maze. Viktor, Cedric, Harry, and Fleur just stood with grim-set faces as they waited for Bagman to announce who would enter first.

The first few stars twinkled in the deep violet sky as Fleur took a deep breath. She was in no mood for any chatting, so the third task of the Triwizard Tournament seemed overwhelming. After the emotional slap in the face from Cho, she suddenly felt as if she couldn't handle the pressure of traversing through the deadly obstacle maze in representation for her school.

Those two words that she had said…they crushed her more than she knew.

I can't.

"You can't what!" Fleur's mind screamed in agony as she clenched her fists and grit her teeth in unspoken denial. No matter how much pain and misery Cho put her through, she couldn't hate her for it. On the contrary, all she could do is love her more. But she had just flattened her hopes, she had decimated them into little, microscopic pieces that couldn't be put back together… what more could she do about it?

She looked up to the darkening sky and witnessed a star die. It may have exploded ages and ages ago, but its light just stopped reaching the earth at that moment. The once twinkling star faded away into nothingness.

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

The stands erupted into an echoing, thunderous applause as the hundreds of spectators clapped for the two young champions.

"In second place, with eighty points - Mr. Viktor Krum, of Durmstrang Institute! And in third place – Miss Fleur Delacour, of Beauxbatons Academy!"

At the mention of the veela's name, the applause seemed to get a notch more intense, probably because of the male viewers. Looking up into the seating areas, Fleur looked around to see if she could possibly find Cho.

There were too many faces. It'd take a miracle to single her out of everyone else in the crowd.

"So… on my whistle, Harry and Cedric!" said Bagman. "Three – two – one – "

The tingling sound of the whistle ripped through the air as they both dashed into the shrouded maze. Bagman looked at his stopwatch, timing how long they were gone, as the spectators shouted louder and louder in order to cheer on their favorite champion. He smiled once before glancing at Viktor, nodding his head slightly.

"Go on ahead."

He blew his whistle a second time as the champion from Durmstrang rushed inside, his wand already drawn in front of him.

Fleur stepped up to the entrance and stood up straight. She had to remain calm and in control, no matter what emotional storm was raging inside of her at the moment. Beauxbaton is counting on her, Madame Maxime is counting on her…

"And maybe Cho might still be too…"

She took one more fleeting glance into the stands before Bagman took out his whistle. He raised it to his lips, and then something miraculous happened; Fleur spotted a bit of flowing black in the stands. The more she thought about it, there weren't that many Asian wizards around in their school.

"Cho…"

It was too far to tell if they were making eye-contact, but that's all she needed. To know that she was still in the stands watching her at all, that was what it took. She had renewed confidence, but a pang still hit her heart.

"And now you're off Miss Delacour."

Bagman blew his whistle loudly for the third and final champion. Fleur took one last glance at the area where Cho was sitting, and ran into the mysterious hedges. Whether it was because the sky had turned black, or because the maze was actually enchanted, it had gotten considerably darker.

"Lumos."

Her veela-cored wand tip lit up brightly and illuminated the shadows. It was actually creepier than she had expected, but pushing back the fear, Fleur pushed on. She glanced left and right, hoping to not come in contact with any of the other champions, or an obstacle, but then realized something was wrong.

Why did the ground look like it was moving? She stopped in her tracks and stared intently at the floor. Waving her wand around, everything looked okay in the light, but once the illuminated circle moved away, and darkness swept over, the floor appeared to be… alive or something.

She turned her head and waved her wand away and then something jumped on her. It was a dark, slithering cloud of… shadows? It almost resembled a foot long worm, but it looked just like a moving cloud. It was making its way towards her face…towards her mouth.

"No! A lethifold!" she faintly remembered an entry in one of the care for magical creatures book. It was supposed to be a tropical creature that hunts in the night, and the way it kills is by smothering its victim's mouths so they can't breathe. That's why it was trying to reach her face. If she remembered correctly, it eats the dead prey and is digested on the spot. How do you kill it again…?

She wrenched it off with both hands and threw it to the ground, shining light on it with her wand. Lumos wasn't enough. The lethifold slithered back into the shadows and then camouflaged in with her surroundings. Extreme light, she needs more… oh, duh.

"Expecto Patronum!"

Mustering up her happiest memory, which oddly seemed to be her most painful one too, she let her patronus filter out of her wand. The spectral animal resembled a raven as it flew through the air directly at the lethifold. Giving off an intense amount of light, the patronus passed over the shadowy lethifold and consumed it within its blinding radiance.

What a dangerous creature… it could have possibly killed her if she didn't know how to use the patronus charm. Doesn't seem that safe. She shrugged and sprinted through the maze. The trail gave way to a fork in the road with two possible routes.

"Left or right? Hm… like the old saying goes, go with your predominate hand…"

She jogged to her right and immediately regretted it. At least ten feet long, a Blast-Ended Skrewt slowly twisted its sluggish body around to face her. A dangerous stinger was curled over its back, waving about treacherously as its thick armor reflected the light emitting from Fleur's wand.

"Relashio!"

Red sparks shot out sporadically from the tip of her wand in the direction of the skrewt, but the spell merely bounced right off the protective armor on its thick hide. Flickering embers fell to the floor as the skrewt shot her with its stinger.

She rolled to the side just in time, though a portion of her feathery blonde hair got singed. Soft spots, she had to aim for the soft spots. Eyes…underbelly… all the exposed areas.

"Impedimenta!" she shot it out, intending it to hit the belly, but once again, she missed. It flew right past the skrewt and charred the bushes behind it. The skrewt shot a retaliation blast in her direction, but she was too quick for it and hopped out of the line of fire.

Definitely, her aim, and mind, was somewhere else. She decided to use a broader spell on the large monster. She flicked her wand with her wrist and grinned.

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

It was actually quite amusing. Even though it was nearly ten feet long, the skrewt still could do nothing. Floating in the air, it kept stinging the sky as Fleur smiled maliciously.

"Stupid blast-ended skrewt. I hope you shrivel up and die."

She twirled her wrist and the gigantic beast flew through the air and out of her sight. Happy with herself, she turned back around to the fork in the road and went the other way. Running faster and faster, she took a left, a right, left again, straight… and still nothing. Was she lost?

"Point me." She uttered quietly.

Her wand twisted around and pointed to her left. After jogging along the path, she came across a golden mist. The goldenrod haze glinted in the light of her wand as she wondered whether she should go through it or not. Maybe it was poisonous or something…

Then a noise to her right snapped her out of her thoughts. Brown and green bushes rustled, and then a shadowy figure appeared.

"Who's there? Show yourself!" Fleur tried to cover the shakiness in her voice, but when she swung around her illuminated wand to see who was hiding in the darkness, she let out a small gasp.

Black hair glimmered in the artificial light.

"Cho…? What… how… what are you doing here? You're not supposed to be in here, you'll get hurt or something!" Fleur rushed over to the girl and then let out a small cry as a hand collided with her face.

Dark, insanely cruel eyes stared down at her.

"Disgusting. Why do you even try?"

What was she saying? Had she offended Cho so much that she would turn against her like this? Fleur was on the ground, nursing her red, slapped face as and continued to stare up into the spiteful, malevolent eyes of the person she loved. No words were formulating in her mind, she couldn't possibly think of anything except for one thing.

"Cho… why?"

She thought it couldn't get worse, but she was wrong. The silence that was hanging in the air like an ill omen made Fleur want to scream at her. A thin piece of polished wood rose up to her eye-level.

"Crucio!"

Pain! So much blinding, searing torture. The unforgivable curse was made unforgivable for a reason. Like hot white knives slicing her skin, the excruciating curse not only felt like it was destroying her outsides, but it also felt as if it were destroying her insides. Her mind couldn't take it. An immense pressure was constricting her thoughts, and she could almost feel the walls of her skull closing in on her brain.

She screamed and screamed, wanting the pain to just end. Even death had to be a more inviting option than this torment, at least that was painlessly quick. The Crutiatius curse was just… unbearable.

And then it stopped.

Fleur regained her senses somewhat and realized she was rolled up in the fetal position on the ground, her eyes wet with the tears she was shedding. So much pain… she was glad it was over for the moment.

Then she looked up at Cho's wicked grin and the pain came back. It wasn't the curse, no, she didn't need a curse to inflict emotional suffering like this.

"Why are you doing this Cho? Do you hate me this much?"

Fresh tears began to roll down her dirtied cheeks as she stood back up unsurely on her wobbly legs.

Cho sauntered up to her, a playful but vindictive grin tugging at her lips. She dusted off the dirt and grime from Fleur's face and stopped barely a few inches away from her.

"I hate you this much."

As if it weren't confusing enough, Cho had to complicate it by pressing her lips against Fleur's. It took her breath away, her eyes closed shut instinctively to the feeling, and her heart began to skip beats, but then she realized something was awfully wrong, besides the fact that she had just been casting crucio on her moments before.

Her lips were cold. They were so cold that they could be considered frozen. And then Cho bit down on her lips, causing her eyes to fly open sharply in reaction, but what she saw made her infuriated.

"Roger? Roger Davies?"

The chaser of the Quidditch team was laughing in her face mockingly. She spat on the ground to get the rancid taste out of her mouth.

"You're wrong Miss Delacour, it is neither."

That voice. She knew it. It was hard not to know it. She turned around and the crazed teacher who had come to be known as Mad-Eye Moody stepped into view. His magical eyeball was swiveling in its socket as he grinned crookedly at her. He pointed behind her and whipped out his wand.

"Riddikulus!"

Roger Davies transformed into a squirrel with a party hat on its small furry head. It scampered off between the bushes and the teacher guffawed hoarsely.

"Squirrels always amuse me…"

Fleur stared at him skeptically. This school sure is weird… She coughed loudly and looked up at him.

"Um… merci Professor Moody, but, you're not supposed to be helping me. It is against the rules, and I truly want to win for Beauxbaton fair in square. If you excuse me, I must keep making my way to the triwizard cup. I shall not speak of your assistance. Farewell…"

Slowly she started walking, but she only got a few feet before he laughed at her.

"Incarcerous!"

Ropes magically appeared. They surrounded Fleur and then tightly whipped around her, binding her and causing her to fall to the floor. He walked up to her and smirked at her with a sinister look in both his artificial and organic eye.

"You're not going to make your way to the triwizard cup and you unquestionably won't speak of my assistance. In fact, you won't speak at all. Silencio!"

Fleur opened her mouth to scream for help, because Moody was obviously not helping her. And now, she realized, that he was nicknamed Mad-Eye for a reason. No noise, not even a little sound came out of her mouth. Sure, it was moving, but nothing could be heard. Death was practically spelled out right before her eyes.

Mad-Eye Moody took a swig of the polyjuice potion that was hidden in his side hip-flask before cackling even more at Fleur's useless antics. He looked at his watch and smiled.

"Well, time to get that Durmstrang boy. A good Imperious curse should make him do Cedric in…" he sneered at Fleur. "Wasn't that the boy that your friend went to the ball with? Or should I say, girlfriend? You obviously got very cozy with her…" he chuckled and walked past her until his figure almost melted back into the shadows of the maze.

"Ah, well, no time to waste."

Fleur could vaguely see what he was doing in the veil of blackness that shrouded around him. A long, thick shadow, most likely an arm, was raised in her direction. She could barely see the tip of the wand, but it was hard to tell. But with a flash of light, she didn't need to think anything anymore.

Perhaps this is what Harry's parents felt like in their last moment.