Chapter 22:
Roger left both of them standing in the corridor, utterly shocked at his words. Jermaine put a comforting arm around Christine.
"He's not worth it. I don't even think he's telling the truth. Just forget it," her voice came soothingly, with a tinge of hatred.
"No Jer, I heard him talking to Cho Chang yesterday. They had some sort of agreement. I think he is telling the truth," she said, very much ready to cry.
"Come on, we can talk about this later. We are half an hour late. Any later we will get into serious punishment," she said, leading Chris to where the Third Task was held.
"Wait," Christine said, holding back her tears and the earn to scream, "I know a short cut. It's gonna be at the quidditch pitch right?" Jermaine nodded, "We can take the route leading to the back. Come on. Lets go," she said, walking to the left.
After walking for some while and not being able to find the back entrance, Jermaine asked uncertainly, "Are you sure you know where we are going? It's getting mistier and it's taking a toll on my asthma,"
"Yes I'm very much positive," Christine said, although her mind thought very much likewise.
After walking for another minute or so, they found large, neatly grown hedges. Little did they know that they were just outside the maze where the third task was held…
"Haha, you don't think Lynette and Kimberly are responsible for this, do you?"
"Neatly, square cut hedges, no decapitated disNAY characters, oh I don't know," Jermaine remarked sarcastically, grinning.
"OH! Here it is!" Christine exclaimed as they reached this large, wooden door in the hedges.
Suddenly, a scream was heard.
Instinctively, Jermaine grabbed hold of Christine's arm as Christine did simultaneously.
"Wh… What was that?" Jermaine asked.
"I don't know…"
"PERRICULUM!" someone (a boy) shouted.
Red sparks were shot into the sky from behind those hedges.
Jermaine squeaked and said in an overly exaggerated whisper, "What was that!"
"I don't know," Christine muttered back anxiously, "We'd better hurry up," she said, pushing the wooden door open…
"Where are we?" Jermaine squeaked louder.
"Don't know!" Christine said, frightened.
"Is this… A maze?" Jermaine said, voice full of interest. But her interest soon died…
"ARGH!" both of them screamed as a skrewt converged on them.
Jermaine drew out her wand and hexed it into oblivion after a few weak attempts to stun it.
"Where the hell are we!" Christine freaked.
"I don't know!" Jermaine screamed as they both broke into a run as a huge gust of wind blew towards them.
"Do you think we are in the third task?"
"No… Uh-uh… Cant be," Jermaine said, shaking her head (but not sounding entirely convinced) as they screamed again as a giant spider crawled towards them.
"Impedimenta!" Christine screamed, causing the spider to freeze momentarily, giving them enough time to make a run for it.
After walking a certain distance, another gust of wind blew open two hedges, revealing the center of the maze.
"Is… is that the Tri-wizard cup?" Jermaine whispered unbelievably, pointing at the glowing cup.
"This is the third task," Christine said.
"Maybe it will… Bring us back to school?" Jermaine said.
"Yeah! Yeah, maybe it will,"
"But if we touch it, we will ruin the whole thing! Non of the champions will emerge as… Well, champions!" Jermaine half squeaked.
"We'll just wait in the middle,"
"That will seem so random!"
Before they could bicker on, another annoying gust of wind blew them forward to the center.
"THIS IS SO DAMN ANNOYING!" Christine yelled.
They stood at one of the openings to the center.
"It's there,"
"The Tri-wizard Cup,"
At that moment, Cedric and Harry Potter emerged from the opposite opening.
"What are you doing here!"
"We didn't know!"
"Just grab it, I wanna go back,"
"Go on!" Cedric shouted at Harry as yet another huge and ceaseless gust of wind blew, "Take it! YOU SAVED ME!"
"Together!" Harry said, nodding to Jermaine and Christine.
"1, 2,- ARGHH…."
Another gust of wind blew, spinning the four and causing a horrible sensation behind their navels.
"ARGH, I RATHER HAVE THE OTHER WINDS !" Christine yelled. "Don't…" her voice was lost in the swirling vortex of terror. Well, sorta.
POOMPH.
All of them were thrown on soil. The question was, where?
"Kill the spare!" someone hissed.
A swishing sound and a second voice screeched.
A flash of green light.
"Cedric! LOOK OUT!" Jermaine cried, pushing him aside.
The green bolt hit her in her chest. She lay motionless on the ground after being thrown back several feet.
"JERMAINE!" Christine shouted, sprinting to her side.
Her cold, lifeless brown eyes stared back at Christine. They were large and round with shock. Her body was cold and heart wasn't beating.
Christine looked around. She saw this rotund, stout, filthy looking man, cradling what seemed like a baby…
"YOU MURDERER!"
She heard the "baby" whisper something to the man in an annoyed fashion. Immediately, Cedric and her were flung back and restrained by invisible ropes onto the grave stones while Harry was grabbed by what looked like a statue of the Grim Reaper.
The man dumped his "baby" into a boiling cauldron and walked over to Harry with a knife in his hand.
"Leave him alone!" Cedric cried.
The man ignored him and sunk his blade into Harry's arm.
Christine was crying all this while, unable to bring herself to look at Jermaine's lifeless body.
He dripped the blood from the blade into the cauldron. 1… 2… 3… drops of blood. He then put the blade to his wrist and severed his hand own hand…
The baby emerged, mutilating itself into the body of a full grown man, a dark robe encasing its naked body…
It was the ugliest thing she ever saw. Slits for nostrils… A bald, vein decorated head…
She saw it take in a deep breath and touch its scalp contently before surveying the rest of the fresh, new skin…
"Harry Potter, we meet at last," it said, "How is it, that a mere baby was able to deprive me of my powers, 14 years ago? HOW WAS IT, THAT YOU CONSTANTLY DEFEATED ME IN THE PAST THREE YEARS, ONLY, AS A SNIVELLING TEENAGER?" he snarled, "Old magic your mother bestowed on you. Something, which I overlooked. But still, now, I can touch you!" he said, pressing his index finger into Harry's scar, causing him to scream and writhe in pain.
"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Christine shouted.
"Ahh, and who have we here? Harry's minions? I will show you how to give the proper respect, to LORD VOLDEMORT!" he shouted, releasing Christine and Cedric, causing them to fall hard on their knees and palms.
"Let's see how long you can last," he said as the pudgy man laughed cruelly behind him.
"Crucio!" he said, pointing his wand at her, before she had any time to respond.
Her hand felt as if it was dislocated from its socket as it was "pasted" to her back. She screamed in agony as he laughed cruelly.
Cedric reached for his wand and shouted, "Protego!"
Voldermort lazily flicked the red beam of light away along with Cedric's wand, momentarily stopping the torture.
"I have no time to deal with mere children," he said, flinging the two back to the grave stone and binding them there.
"Wormtail, your arm," he commanded.
"Oh thank you master, thank you!"
"Your other arm!" he said with more force.
"Master…" He whimpered as Voldermort grasped his arm and jabbed his wand against his tattoo.
The dark mark appeared in the sky as tens of hooded and masked people apperated to the scene.
"Thirteen years I have waited, my friends. Thirteen years," Voldermort said to those hooded people.
"Are you okay?" Cedric whispered to Christine.
"No," she gasped.
"Pardon me my lord but.. Is that a Lin?" one of the masked men queried.
"It appears so Rookwood… I believe you killed her mother," Voldermort said calmly as he released her and Cedric, throwing them back their wands.
"No!" Christine screamed.
"Unfortunately yes. All I can say is, delicious," Rookwood said, licking his lips.
"Kill him," Voldermort hissed to Christine, "Kill him if you dare. Together, we can bring your mother back to life… Make everything perfect…"
"Christine, don't!" Cedric shouted as she took her wand and brought it up to Rookwood's face.
She was filled with hatred… Filled with vengence… Every look of disgust and hate was etched into her face…
"Kill him or your friend dies…" Voldemort snarled as he pointed his wand at Cedric.
"Master…" Rookwood said in a pleading voice.
"Christine! NO! Think about what your mother would do!" Harry said.
"Shut up Potter!" Christine said exasperatedly.
"No?" Voldemort said, "Then I guess its CRUCIO!"
Cedric's screams of agony filled her ears… Filled her every thought.
Tears streamed down her face… Being mean as she was, it was not in her nature to be blood thirsty or to kill…
"IMPEDIMENTA!" she screamed the force of her spell sent Rookwood careening.
"You are weak, like ALL other Gryffindors!" He spat, "Weak like your mother before she died,"
Voldermort commanded that Harry was returned his wand so that they could do battle.
"AVADA KEDEVRA!"
"EXPELLIARMUS!"
Christine shielded her eyes as a gold light engulfed the surroundings.
People started to appear all over the place. Shadows. Stronger at first, but they got fainter and fainter… First Jermaine, then a confused looking woman, followed by Harry's parents and finally an old, balding man… they were all saying things that she couldn't hear.
His parents were saying stuff she couldn't hear. Harry must have, because after the wand connection was broken, he sprinted towards both Christine and Cedric, grabbing Jermaine's dead body and summoning the cup to him, bringing them back to Hogwarts…