Chapter 11: The Third Task
"My name is Gladys Milbanks," said the woman who was standing next to Bertha Jorkins, "And I am the new Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports."
Angelina sighed. Another new judge.
"That being said, I have decided to allow Bertha here to continue as head of the Triwizard Tournament detail, and as Tournament judge," continued Milbanks, "She has done as good a job as could be expected giventhe circumstances, and we do not need more changes at this late date."
The four champions were gathered out by the Quidditch pitch. And it was now obvious that a hedge maze was growing there. They were about to be briefed on the third task.
"And that being said," continued Milbanks, "I would appreciate it if we could refrain from any incidents, like your protest of the second task. I agree with you all that it was an inappropriate task, but so too was your protest inappropriate."
"There was, ah, an outside force, you might say, acting on us," said Angelina, "while none of us regret what we did, we aren't really very eager to repeat it."
"That is good," said Milbanks, "I will let Bertha continue from here."
"Well, it's going to be an obstacle maze," said Bertha, "You will all just have to do your best! I can't really give you more information than that, but surely you are all familiar with the concept of a magical gauntlet."
Everyone nodded.
"You will enter the maze at staggered intervals, your goal to take the Triwizard Cup," said Bertha, "Angelina will enter first, then Krum, then Fleur, and finally Cedric. This is because of your scores on the first two tasks."
Everyone nodded. Soon they were all dismissed. But the champions all gathered together afterwards.
"So I have a suggestion, one that Angelina made to me earlier, and that I, to my shame rejected," said Cedric, "We should all bring our best helpers and join Angelina's group, which is really big, but has Harriet Potter and Hermione Granger helping plan. I… I just don't want anyone getting hurt. That's way more important than winning the cup."
"Says ze person in last place," joked Fleur.
"The person in first place says it too," said Angelina.
"Oh, I was just joking," said Fleur, "what ees a leetle, ah, trash-talking, among friends?"
"I agree vith this plan," said Krum, "Trust me Fleur, ve vant Her-my-own-ie to help us. She is very clever."
"Of course I agree," said Fleur, "You are all my friends, and I would not have any of you 'armed."
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Ginny Weasley sat in a far corner of the Great Hall. There just wasn't much for her to do tonight. It was the first joint training session, and Hermione was compiling lists of the various strengths of the four champions. Everyone was working at something, but Ginny was essentially stuck as a runner, doing odd tasks, but nothing needed doing right now.
Currently, Hermione was interviewing Fleur. Fleur's strengths weren't at all the same as Angelina's or Cedric's. It wasn't the most productive session they could have had, but it would be useful for planning later sessions.
"Bored?" said a voice with a thick accent. Ginny turned to see Viktor Krum standing there.
"A little," Ginny admitted, "I'm not the most studious person in the world. I prefer action, but, ah, this is definitely a situation where planning is called for."
"I know vhat you mean," said Krum, "Yet you are far away from everyone by choice. There is more to vhat you are doing than what you are saying."
"True," agreed Ginny, "I'm just… listen, it is great that Harriet has made up with her friends. I say that without any hesitation. But… it was nice that she was spending so much time with me."
"You are not interested in her, are you?" asked Krum.
"Oh no, I'm straight," said Ginny, "Though I might agree to a snog if... that's not important."
Ginny blushed, but continued. "But I was really close to her once, and now she has so many friends and it feels like I'm not in the inner circle anymore. And I think if I was a year older I would be. It kind of sucks to be the backup best friend, you know?"
"It's not like I don't have my own friends either," sighed Ginny, "Though Harriet being around also means that I won't play Quidditch until my fifth year at the earliest. No spots are going to open next year, except Keeper. Which I am not going for. I want to play chaser, but until Angelina and Alicia leave that isn't likely. And even if I could outplay Alicia, would Angelina give me the spot over her closest friend?"
"Sorry, didn't mean to rant," said Ginny.
"In a vay I envy you," said Krum, "It is a problem I vould like to haff. I do not ever get to disappear into the crowd."
"Do not despair," said Krum, "I think you vill get your day one day. I hope it is all you vish for."
Ginny smiled at Krum. He really was very nice. And he was certainly, well, manly. Too bad he was so much older than her.
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The year marched on, relentlessly. Harriet had to admit, she hadn't spent the time she had meant to on her studies this year. Consequently, she was doing well, but she didn't feel as if she was standing out as much as she had in previous years. Still, when the time for final exams came along, she felt as if she did well on all of them.
Which left her with lots of time to help train the champions. Harriet herself wasn't necessarily so helpful in terms of her own skills, but she could easily see the mistakes that the champions were making. This had led to her giving critiques of all their training sessions. Those critiques were useful, because few people other than Hermione were able to understand what exactly was wrong.
Hermione had the far more important task of planning the training sessions. She had managed to help develop a training program for each champion dependent on their strengths and weaknesses. The primary goal here was to train up the weaknesses that Hermione deemed fatal, while concentrating on enhancing the strengths of each contestant.
Krum was good at anything that required quick action and reflexes, for example, but he wasn't great at abstract problem solving. Fleur on the other hand was quite good at clever tricks, but had poor spatial awareness. Krum would therefore have to brute force his way through any traps, while Fleur was trained to recognize and avoid common magical traps.
Cedric and Angelina both had the same weakness, overconfidence. Most of their training was to teach them to slow down and analyze their situation. Cedric clearly didn't like this, which made sense as he would have to take risks to catch up to Angelina. But he realised that the main reason he had fallen so far behind was that he had tried to take a shortcut in the last task, a shortcut he hadn't even tested properly.
Harriet had to admit that Hermione hadn't brought up Morgan again. That actually had set her to thinking. She really should be able to evaluate Morgan's actions fairly. But every time she tried her mind shied away from it. That was odd. Harriet wasn't capable of blaming Morgan for that oddity, but it did disturb her. Even if she didn't think it was Morgan, she couldn't deny that Hermione's concerns were at least justified, insomuch as that something was wrong.
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By the day of the Third Task, Hermione was getting worried. There was precious little time left in the school year, but Morgana had still not completed the geas. Morgana had to know that she couldn't allow Harriet to leave Hogwarts without completing it, yet she hadn't bothered yet. Hermione was worried that Morgana intended to use the third task as a distraction.
The only thing for it would be for Hermione to stick to Harriet like glue for the whole day. Luckily, thanks to the runestones, this just meant that Hermione would need to keep her runestone on her. Hermione suspected that Morgana would have a special distraction prepared for her. She wasn't wrong.
Hermione still wasn't prepared when Professor McGonagall and Gladys Milbanks approached her.
"I wanted to be the first to tell you," said Milbanks, "We have a surprise for you."
"For me?" asked Hermione, suspiciously.
"Just come with us Miss Granger," said McGonagall with a smile.
Hermione frowned but followed. She was taken to the Entrance Hall, where they had the Champions meeting with their families. But it wasn't just the Champion's families that were there. Sirius was there, as well as…
"Mum, dad!" shouted Hermione excitedly.
Both of her parents were standing there. Hermione ran over and hugged them both. When she finished, Milbanks walked up.
"It is past time that we let the parents of muggleborns take a bigger role in their schooling," said Milbanks, "Letting your parents attend today's proceedings is just the beginning of what we intend to do."
"Why my parents though?" asked Hermione.
"You were helping to train the champions, weren't you?" asked Milbanks, "Really I intend to have all sporting events at Hogwarts open to the parents of muggleborns eventually, but this is just a first step."
"Huh," said Hermione. This was odd. She wondered how this had come to Milbanks' attention.
As Milbanks and McGonagall left, Hermione's parents moved in.
"Honestly, we were the ones who approached her about this," said Robert.
"How did you even know how involved I was?" asked Hermione.
"Professor Solaire told us," explained Helen.
"Honey, she wanted us to keep that quiet!" said Robert, his tone accusing.
"No, no, it's very good that you told me that," said Hermione, suddenly understanding what had happened. So this was Morgana's distraction.
"Sirius!" shouted Hermione as she waved her hand at him.
Sirius walked over, his face a smirk. "I should have thought of this," he said happily.
"Sirius," said Hermione anxiously, "How is life as Deputy Minister for Magic treating you?"
"Good," said Sirius with a grin. "I've been putting together a summer legislative package that will make the purebloods howl."
"Sounds great," said Hermione, "Can we talk about that thing with Harriet? Privately?"
"Umm, yeah, if you would excuse us for a minute?" Sirius said to Hermione's parents, "My daughter keeps causing me headaches, as you well know. Why should today be any different?"
Sirius took Hermione aside a ways. "Is something wrong?" He asked quietly.
"Morgana was the one who suggested they come," said Hermione.
"I do not understand," said a confused Sirius, "Why would she do that? What advantage would it give her unless… Hermione, what have you done?"
"So I may have revealed that I knew what was going on to her," said Hermione a bit sheepishly, "And I may sort of have challenged her and made it clear I intended to stop her plans for Harriet."
"Why?" demanded Sirius, his face aghast.
"So she'd screw up," said Hermione, "and it worked. She did screw up. She made Harriet reject me, but then I managed to repair things between us anyway. I significantly weakened her control of Harriet."
"By making yourself a target!" said Sirius, now struggling to stay quiet.
"She won't hurt me," said Hermione.
"She might!" said Sirius, "And I don't mean by accident. She might try to geas you as well."
"She can't geas two people at once," said Hermione dismissively, "She has to finish the first geas first."
"And if she does that?" insisted Sirius, "What then? Unlike Harriet, it is unlikely that you have any innate resistance to mind controlling magic."
"What did you want me to do?" snapped Hermione, "Let her just have Harriet?"
Sirius stopped for a moment. Then he sighed. "You're right. I should have made sure you knew the plan. The Guardians of Atlantis offered to remove the geas. I am going to take Harriet to them after the task today. I had it handled."
"No you don't," said Hermione, "Don't you see? Morgana intends to use my parents and the task to keep us distracted. She is going to move first. Take Harriet away now!"
"I can't," admitted Sirius, "I need one of the Guardians to bring me to Avalon. I can't get her out of here until they show up. And I have to be here to receive them."
"Why didn't you take Harriet before?" demanded Hermione, "Then we would have had proof!"
"We weren't sure how Morgana would react," said Sirius defensively, "We didn't want her to hurt someone."
"Well, that's vaguely legitimate," said Hermiome grudgingly, "But surely you could have worked around that."
"I… have no excuse," said Sirius finally, "I was just complacent I guess. It wasn't real to me. I figured since the Guardians could keep Harriet safe this would be the easiest way to handle it in the meantime. I didn't even think about you having to sit and watch Morgana control Harriet all this time…"
"It's been absolutely dreadful," said Hermione, "Listen, I didn't want to make your job harder here. I just had to do something, you know?"
"I do actually," said Sirius, "James got himself into trouble that I had to pull him out of a few times. Though I will admit, I was usually the one in trouble. That last year though… that was rough, watching him hide like that. And for it all to not make one damn bit of difference in the end…"
"Just... keep yourself out of harm's way today, alright Hermione?" pleaded Sirius.
"I will try," said Hermione, "But I will also try to keep Harriet near me."
"Just stay in public," said Sirius, "That should keep you safe."
Hermione wasn't so sure. She suddenly felt a sense of dread about today, but didn't know where it was coming from. She hoped Sirius got Harriet away safely.
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Much like the second task, Bertha Jorkins had clearly put a lot of effort into making the third task accessible to spectators. Once again they had a large screen set up so that the audience could watch the task. This time it came with a cover, in case they needed to shut it off for some reason. Also, the Unspeakables had apparently relented and taught some of the workers in the Department of Magical Games and Sports how to set up the recording system. Harriet had to give credit there. The Unspeakables didn't give up even trivial knowledge easily.
Harriet was sitting between Ron and Hermione. She wasn't dumb. Hermione kept glancing at Morgan, and so did Ron. It was clear that they expected her to do something today. And Harriet had to admit, this would be a good day to cause a distraction. Hopefully when nothing happened today, Hermione would calm down. Morgan certainly did not look anxious.
Harriet had met Angelina's parents, who had been very nice, as well as Krum's family. She had met all the Delacours as well. They had been nice, though Apolline, Fleur's mother, had been asking Sirius some rather intimate questions about the cousin of hers he had hooked up with. Sirius had tried to plead that he didn't want to get into that with Harriet around, but Apolline had immediately dismissed that, judging Harriet to be old enough to hear whatever he had to say. That had been funny.
She had previously met Amos Diggory. A bit of a braggart, but he was understandably proud of his son. It was a shame that Cedric had done so poorly in the second task. Harriet's mind immediately forced her to think of something else. Something did not want her dwelling on that.
The champions were now on the field and the judges were assembling. Not that the judges would do anything but declare a competitor disqualified. But that would be important, Harriet guessed. That way the champions wouldn't keep pushing on while wounded and get themselves killed.
"What were you talking to Sirius about earlier?" asked Helen Granger.
"Umm, nothing important," said Hermione, trying not to look at Harriet, "Just a thing, you know."
"Mrs. Granger, why did you bring this up now?" demanded Harriet, "It is very obvious that they were discussing something they don't want me to know about. Though I am surprised that you went to Sirius. That wasn't part of the deal."
"I didn't go to Sirius," said Hermione, "Snape did. And he did it before we made our agreement."
"Snape went to Sirius?" asked Harriet incredulously.
"And apparently Sirius apologized to him," said Hermione.
"What's Sirius' plan?" asked Harriet.
"He's shipping you off to join the Guardians of Atlantis," said Hermione.
"Nice one," said Harriet, with a quick laugh.
"I'm not kidding," said Hermione.
"Huh," said Harriet. That seemed weird. But going to Avalon would be fun. Once they cleared her, she'd have that experience under her belt.
Bertha Jorkins explained the rules. First contestant to the cup won. Judges would rule by majority on whether a competitor was unable to continue. Angelina would go in first.
"I guess I shouldn't tell Morgan about going to Avalon, huh," said Harriet.
"Well it might be insensitive," said Hermione, "She is banned from there, remember."
"Oh yes, I remember," said Harriet, "She told me all about that."
"Did she tell you about the goblins?" asked Hermione.
"Yeah," said Harriet. Her mind tried to force her to stop thinking about this, but Harriet refused. Some things had to be faced.
"She isn't that person anymore Hermione," said Harriet deliberately.
"Is it hard to talk about this?" asked Hermione.
An even more powerful urge hit Harriet, telling her not to answer. "Yes," said Harriet, "I don't think Morgan is behind it, but you are correct, someone is trying to mind control me."
"What!?" demanded Helen.
"Well, we'll drop it for now then," said Hermione, "I know it makes things uncomfortable for you. You know that's the last thing I'd ever want to do, right?"
"Yeah," said Harriet shortly.
"Don't worry Harriet," said Ron, "One way or another, you'll probably know the truth by the end of the day."
There was a huge cheer, and suddenly Bertha Jorkins waved her wand. A cannon boomed, and Angelina headed into the maze.
It had begun.
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Angelina moved through the maze carefully, but deliberately. She guessed that the maze wasn't a true labyrinth, but instead was designed to slowly funnel you to one of a handful of ways to progress. Each route would be guarded by different opponents and traps. She wondered if they had tried to get a Minotaur, but decided that would probably be too dangerous.
She had heard the cannon go off three more times. Everyone was in the maze now. Good.
The thing appeared suddenly, though it wasn't moving fast. A blast ended skrewt. Hagrid had been breeding them all year, probably for this. But there was another sound. The skrewt wasn't alone. Angelina swore. She could hear pixies. She had stumbled on two obstacles at once!
The pixies swarmed out past the skrewt, but this attracted the skrewt towards her. Angelina cast quickly, sending out an immobilizing field to freeze the pixies. That had no effect on the skrewt though, which now charged her. Angelina simply levitated it.
Angelina considered this. She could kill it, but why? She supposed if she had taken Care of Magical Creatures she might feel differently, but she let it hang there as she continued on.
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A groan of disappointment went over the crowd as the students of Hogwarts realised that Angelina was not going to kill the skrewt.
"Man, I have so many scars from that thing," complained Harriet, "I would have gutted that monstrosity."
"Hmm," said Hermione, clearly not happy with this line of thought.
"Now that the champions are gone,' said Bertha Jorkins, "It's time to talk about the maze. Most of the obstacles and hedges within this maze are mobile. So there is no threat of one contestant following behind another and not having any obstacles. Also, it is possible for contestants to blast their way through the hedges, but this will cause you problems later! However there is a solid barrier between the inner and outer mazes. And there are only three ways through the barrier. One is on the far side of the maze, but is not guarded. Another is hidden on one side. And another is guarded by a sphinx. You can save a lot of time going through either of those last two paths, but good luck finding them, and good luck with the sphinx if you find it."
Fleur was suddenly on the screen. Apparently she was approaching an obstacle.
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Fleur stared at the hole in front of her. It was quite wide, and it had spikes at the bottom. However a narrow platform (more of a plank than a platform really) ran over the hole. The hole was about 10 metres wide.
Fleur considered her options. Obviously she could try to use magic to jump the obstacle. But that assumed that the hole was the only part of the obstacle. And Fleur wasn't stupid. There had to be a magical component to this, it wouldn't just be a pit. Which meant that hurling herself into the air blindly wasn't a very good idea. Plus, Fleur had to admit that she had only ever propelled a jump like this once. She had just barely made it, which meant any interference here would send her into the pit.
Fleur placed one foot tentatively on the platform. It was more than large enough to accommodate her foot, but not much wider than the length of her foot. She could try to sidestep across, but that would mean pointing her back towards one of the hedge walls. She was not about to do that.
And for good reason! The walls sent out tendrils of branches as soon as her foot hit the platform that slowly extended and crossed the platform, then slowly pulled back. She would have to weave between them as she walked across the platform, as they did not move synchronously.
She waited for the first branch to pull back, then carefully began to advance. There were at least eleven branches to dodge, but they were bunched together so there were places where it would take skill to advance.
She almost made it. However, on the last set of branches, as she carefully walked the narrow path, she didn't advance fast enough. One of the branches hit her from behind, and she toppled into the pit. Spikes filled her vision. But instead of feeling a spike tear through her chest, she felt the hard jarring impact of the flat ground slam into her instead.
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"The spikes were just an illusion!" shouted Bertha Jorkins to the crowd, "Poor Fleur Delacour. She should have used a cutting charm to cut off the branches. More would have come, but she'd have had time to cross before they reached her. Still, she almost made it! Unfortunately, as she fell into the pit, she is disqualified."
Madame Maxine was very annoyed, but she couldn't deny that Fleur would have died if those had been real spikes.
"Angelina has a real lead," said Harriet as a big map of the current formation of the maze popped up.
"Krum is approaching the sphinx," said Ron, excitedly.
"Oh, bollocks," said Hermione, "That is the worst possible outcome for him."
"You don't think he can figure out a riddle?" asked Ron.
"I think he might, given enough time," said Hermione, "As things are… he's going to try to brute force this."
"Against a sphinx?" asked Harriet, "Yikes, we'll have to see how that goes."
Krum was suddenly on the screen. Unfortunately, they didn't have sound. But they could see him approach the sphinx. The sphinx talked to Krum, telling a long riddle of some sort. There was a short pause, then Krum said something in reply.
"No way," said Hermione, "He just guessed."
And indeed, the sphinx reared up and charged. But Krum was ready for this. He fell back as he fired spells at the sphinx. The sphinx pursued.
"I wonder how far the sphinx will pursue him," said Harriet.
"Not too far I would imagine," guessed Hermione.
"Yeah, it has to guard the entrance to the inner maze," said Ron.
Suddenly Krum threw himself around a corner and Disillusioned himself.
"Oh wow," said Harriet, "Clever."
"He lured it out and is now trying to sneak past it," agreed Hermione, "Though it is possible that they anticipated this."
The sphinx looked for Krum for a few moments. Then, suddenly, a clanging sound came from within the maze.
"They left an alarm, so that anyone passing into the inner maze without answering the riddle would be compromised," said Ron.
"Nice prediction there Hermione," said Harriet.
The sphinx returned to the access way. Krum was still disillusioned, but some faerie dust had fallen on him. So he let out a distinct sparkle. There was no hiding now. Worse, the hedges reached out and tried to trip him. Stumbling forward, Krum tried to escape. But the sphinx overtook him and knocked him to the ground.
"Viktor Krum is disqualified!" shouted Bertha Jorkins after nods from all of the judges.
The crowd began to murmur. It was now just the Hogwarts champions.
Angelina had almost reached the far entrance to the inner maze. But Harriet noticed that Cedric was extremely close to the hidden entrance. Soon the screen showed Cedric once again. He was just outside the hidden entrance.
Cedric had not had a difficult run, but he was far behind. His only major trouble had been a boggart, which he had dealt with before the judges realized he had encountered it. But struggling as he was to make up for his late start, this could be a game changer.
At first he looked like he would walk right past the slightly discolored bit of hedge. But he stopped, and prodded it with his wand. And it opened! Cedric passed right through.
And at the same moment Angelina passed into the inner maze. They were neck and neck.
"Time for the inner maze to come alive!" shouted Bertha Jorkins.
A roar of approval was the reply from the crowd.
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Angelina heard the sound of the crowd, distantly. That probably wasn't good for her. She knew two contestants had been eliminated, but not which ones. The first one probably hadn't been Cedric, it had happened too soon after he entered the maze.
The maze began to rustle. Damn it, she thought, the maze is waking up. I must be in the home stretch.
Angelina gripped her wand tighter, but kept moving. Branches seemed to extend on their own, she felt the maze tightening around her. Angelina kept her pace steady. Soon Branches seemed to be doing their best to trip her, or seemed to be. But moving at her deliberate pace, they always retracted before she reached them. And there it was. The maze wanted to force her to rush here, or to lag behind. But as long as she kept moving steadily she was fine.
One foot in front of the other, that was the way. One foot then the other. And finally she came to a last straightaway. There she saw the cup. Beyond the cup she saw Cedric. He had tripped and fallen, and was struggling to get up as branches tried to pull him down.
Angelina advanced steadily. As before, it worked, and she continued on her way. Cedric must have dashed for the cup. A mistake. But as she grew closer, she felt sorry for him. He'd done well to catch up to her. So she sent cutting charms at the branches pulling him back. Cedric stumbled to his feet, and both champions entered the very heart of the maze at the same time.
"You should take it," said Cedric, "I wouldn't have gotten up without your help."
Angelina hesitated. "Why don't we both take it," she finally said, "A victory for Hogwarts."
"A victory for Hogwarts," agreed Cedric with a smile.
"One," said Angelina.
"Two," said Cedric.
"Three!" said both of them as they both grabbed the opposite handles of the Triwizard Cup.
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Both Cedric and Angelina disappeared as the cup spun them away.
"The cup is a portkey," said Hermione, actually impressed.
Bertha Jorkins walked over to the winner's podium and seemed to wait for them to appear. But no one appeared. Time dragged on. Still no one.
"Something is wrong," said Hermione.
"Very wrong," agreed Harriet.
Barty Crouch Sr. stood up. "The portkey must have been directed to the wrong address. I will contact the Ministry, they probably ended up there."
"They did not," said a voice.
And suddenly, Barty Crouch Jr. strode into the area in front of the spectators area.
"Arrest him!" shouted Crouch Sr.
"For the moment, Cedric Diggory and Angelina Johnson are fine," said Jr., "But if I do not return, and successfully at that, that will change."
Dumbledore held up a hand to stop the security from advancing. "What do you want Barty?" asked Dumbledore.
"I want my Lord to return," said Jr., "What else? I am a servant of the Dark Lord, after all. But one step at a time. I want one thing, and I will leave. And then I may be able to save poor Cedric and Angelina."
"May?" asked Sirius, his voice incredulous.
"I am not in a position to grant promises," said Jr. "But I see no reason they should be harmed."
"What do you want?" demanded Sr.
"I want Harriet Potter," said Jr.
Hermione grabbed Harriet's arm. "Do not!" breathed Hermione raggedly.
"I won't," said Harriet.
"I will not lie," said Jr., "Your life will be at risk. But you will have a chance to face the Dark Lord once more."
Harriet's eyes narrowed.
"You will have a chance to defeat him once more," said Jr.
And Hermione saw something in Harriet's eyes change. And that is when she knew that Crouch had just tripped the geas. This was the task Harriet was bound to perform.
"No!" screamed Hermione, "Do not go with him! It's a trap!"
"It isn't a trap," said Harriet, "a trap is hidden. It's a threat."
Harriet stepped forward, walking towards Crouch Jr.
"Nooo!" screamed Sirius, "I forbid this Harriet! You cannot do this!"
"I have to do this," said Harriet, her voice distant, "It's my destiny."
"I will not allow it," said Dumbledore, raising his wand.
Harriet struck so quickly that no one could see her move. A wave of force knocked down Dumbledore and Sirius. And Harriet ran forward. Towards Crouch.
"Please, no! Harry!" cried out Hermione.
But it was too late. Harriet had reached Crouch. And with a single twist of Crouch's wrist, they both disappeared.
Author's Note: I've been working to make this chapter and the next 2 ready to publish so I can publish them all in quick succession. I didn't want to leave it for weeks on a cliffhanger. So expect more updates very soon.
I have also been writing Part 8 and have finished 4 chapters of rough draft. Part 8 is post-Hogwarts, so everything I'm writing there is completely separate from the standard Hogwarts narrative.
The one thing I do want to address from this chapter is Sirius' failure to do anything about Harriet's geas. The truth is, a geas is such old and antiquated magic that I just don't think Sirius knows how such magic works. He knows the broad outline of how it works, but until he talked to Hermione he didn't really understand that Harriet was being affected even without the geas being complete. Valerii hasn't ever really seen a geas either. Even Flamel isn't that familiar with them. Only Merlin comes from an era where they were used with any degree of frequency, and they were already rare then. Sirius really should have talked to Harriet, but given everything that's on his plate... well becoming deputy Minister for Magic has definitely distracted him.