Dial-Up Dementors

DISCLAIMER! This Harry Potter story was written for fun. All rights belong to the wonderful lady (JK Rowling) who gave the world Harry Potter to read and enjoy. Looking forward to the next movie! Yeah, fanfiction is a great place to stretch your imagination and enjoy someone else's creativity!

Chapter 11: The Third Task

Harry worked diligently on his homework with his friends, Neville Longbottom and Hermione Granger. The other Gryffindors in the fourth year became entirely dependent on Essays From a Friend and, except for practising some spells to pass the practical portions of their classroom work for Transfiguration, Charms, and DADA, never thought about their schoolwork. There were fewer students than ever in the library, and Harry made tentative friends with Daphne Greengrass, Tracy Davis, Susan Bones, Hannah Abbot, and Ernie McMillian. Luna Lovegood, a third-year student from Ravenclaw, sought refuge at their study table to protect herself from the malicious hexes of the older Ravenclaw girls.

On a mission to punish every evil-doer in Britain, Susan Bones taught the shy witch several jinxes and hexes, joined Luna in two battles against the bullies, and then taught Luna several charms that danced close to being illegal to protect her belongings. One day at lunch, Susan led Luna along the length of the Ravenclaw table as they inquired with each witch in that house about missing clothing, shoes, and other belongings. Several girls rose from the table and ran from the Great Hall to return Luna's belongings before Susan and Luna ventured into the Ravenclaw Tower after the meal was over.

Hermione inquired with Susan about helping Luna. The young witch replied, "I'll dedicate my life to doing in evil witches and wizards. No one else should have to suffer what my aunt did…what happened to my brothers."

Luna confided to Harry, "Susan has so many blue heliopaths infecting her heart that I must help her. When she helps another person, in any way, it weakens and drives away the heliopaths."

Harry talked to Susan about his work with the younger students in his house and asked if she wanted to help the ones in her house. Susan grabbed hold of the idea with both hands and eventually generated enough interest to begin a general study session in the Great Hall after dinner. The group quickly embraced students from all four houses in the three years, working with tutors from the group of friends that Harry Potter had formed. When study materials appeared for each subject in neat muggle print on muggle papers, the students began to revise using these materials every night.

The head boy and the head girl noticed the work by the students and included notations in their reports to the Deputy Headmistress, who ignored the information as soon as she saw Harry Potter's name associated with the events. The prefects made sure the students studying in the Great Hall could return to their common rooms before curfew without any pranks for trouble from the older students.

SCENE: Hedges

The week before the third task in the Tri-Wizard Tournament, Headmaster Dumbledore stood up before the students at dinner and asked for volunteers from among the student body willing to spend their Saturday and Sunday afternoon casting spells on the shrubs that were planted on the pitch.

"Despite the best efforts of our groundskeeper, the shrubs are not tall enough," he told everyone. "Before 24 June, it must be six meters tall. So, Professor Sprout has graciously volunteered to give of her time to teach anyone interested how to cast two or three spells that will make the hedges grow to the required height."

From his seat at the Gryffindor table, Harry thought Professor Sprout resembled an unhappy badger who wanted to reach around Professor McGonagall and slap the headmaster.

'With a paw full of sharp claws too, I bet,' Harry decided.

From his side, Neville asked, "Harry, would you walk down there with me on Saturday? I want to help."

"Sure, Neville. I'll go, and we can both learn the spells," Harry replied. "How about you, Hermione?"

"No, I have an essay I have to finish," she replied. Then she added, "But thanks for thinking of me."

"Neville, are the spells hard?"

"No, I don't imagine so. The hard part of herbology is grafting and rooting plants. Once something sprouts, making it grow is just a question of water and sunlight in the proper soil."

"Then let's get the kids we tutor to all go. Professor Sprout will always teach the young kids her spells."

On 17 June, the Saturday before the third task in the Tri-Wizard Tournament, Pomona Sprout made her way to the Quidditch pitch after lunch, hopeful that some students would come and help cast spells. With the size of the maze and the lack of a map, she'd grown concerned that students would get lost in the maze this afternoon. Once she arrived at the pitch, she forgot about that concern for a minute. Along with some of her favourite students from Hufflepuff, there were several fourth-year students and a large group of students from years one through three under the leadership of Harry Potter.

Instructing all the students in the primary spell was simple, "To make an established plant shoot up twenty-five centimetres in one moment, the spell is 'crescunt', which means 'grow fast'. You drill your wand down into the ground around the plant with two flicks and then lift your wand slowly while pronouncing the incantation."

Neville Longbottom and Daphne Greengrass led half of the children around one side of the maze and Susan Bones and Hannah Abbot led the other half around the other side, the outside of the maze would be lifted without too much trouble.

"Now, Mr Potter, you and I shall venture inside and work on growing the hedges inside."

Luna looked at the hedges for a moment and asked, "Professor, would the spell work if a witch is on a broom and casting the spell?"

Pomona looked at the hedge, at Luna, and then back at the hedge again before she replied, "Miss Lovegood, I am certain the spell would work perfectly fine if we were on broomsticks. Ten points to Ravenclaw."

Harry called, "Dobby, we need brooms, please."

There was a pop as Harry's Nimbus 2000 and the school's supply of brooms appeared in their wicker basket. Professor Hooch was popped onto the pitch where Professor Sprout begged her forgiveness and then asked for her help with selecting the best brooms to fly over the maze.

The flying instructor fussed, "Not bad enough that Hagrid desecrated the pitch with a hedge, now you want me to help you!"

Harry said, "Professor, this will give all the younger students a great experience with flying and casting at the same time. You can put sticking spells on them, limit the speed of the brooms, and let them cast Professor Sprout's grow spell for an hour at a time."

"No, only a half-hour," Hooch insisted. "Then each student must stop and rest for a half-hour before flying again."

Hooch also sent for the students who would have been Quidditch captains this year. The ones for Slytherin and Ravenclaw refused to help. Because Cedric had died at the second task, two of the beaters from Hufflepuff hurried down to the pitch with their brooms. Fred and George Weasley showed up with their brooms 'to help', but after Pomona detailed the detentions she would assign if the twins did anything in the manner of a prank or jinx, reinforced by Hooch's promises of a ban from Quidditch next year, the two returned to the castle. Ron Weasley showed up, complained that he just wanted to fly, and hurried back to the castle after Hooch hexed him. Cho Chang stood in the distance with her broom but never approached the pitch before she fled back into the castle.

When the two teams of students came back around the maze, Harry told them his idea for casting the spell while on a broomstick. Neville looked a little scared, but Harry assured his friend, "We'll just fly around slowly and cast the spell over and over. Madam Hooch will stick us to the broomstick, she'll fly as the referee/proctor, and even Professor Sprout will fly and cast spells."

Daphne and Luna assured the girls while Harry got the boys ready to fly.

"Now, thirty minutes of flying and casting. These spells don't take a lot out of your core but I'm not going to take any risks on a Saturday afternoon," Hooch declared.

Harry grinned from his broomstick as the flight of kids and two professors began flying around the top of the maze casting the spell over and over. The hedge in the centre of the maze soon reached three meters and matched the outer boundary.

After thirty minutes, everyone returned to the starting point to dismount their broom and stand them up properly in the basket. Then the house elves provided tea, biscuits, and sandwiches to revive the little witches and wizards. Professor Sprout was thrilled to go for another round of casting spells with the students when the thirty minutes rest concluded. After the second round, the hedge was up to four meters tall. Then, Daphne Greengrass flew close to Harry and asked, "Potter, do you still speak parseltongue?"

"I do," he replied curtly but she simply smiled and shut him up.

"I meant no offence. I just wondered how different the growth of the shrubbery – the hedges – might be if you cast the spell in parseltongue."

Professor Sprout was consulted, and she said, "Give it a shot, Potter. Out of intellectual curiosity of course."

With everyone positioned behind him over the landing area, Harry hovered over the centre of the maze. He pointed his wand down and hissed, {crescent}.

"It's remarkable that he can hover like that," Hooch said as she circled slowly. "I can hover only for five seconds."

"Hover? What's that?" laughed Pomona as she flew in a wider circle.

"Look at the hedge!" called Neville. Harry flew up and then out to escape as the hedge appeared to leap upwards, reaching the specified six meters in just two minutes and then shooting higher.

Harry cast, {Finite Incantatem} in a continuous hiss. The hedge stopped at eight meters and Pomona Sprout laughed at the expression on the face of the Boy-Who-Lived when he landed. This was the first time she'd laughed since Cedric died under the waters of Black Lake.

"Professor…I didn't mean for it to get so tall."

CHANGE: Nifflers Come Home to Roost

On Tuesday, Dumbledore complained about the hedges being too tall. He announced to the students in the Great Hall, "The interior of the maze is entirely too dark! Hagrid must use torches in the middle of the day to find his way into the maze to place the creatures."

"Why is he putting creatures into the maze today?" asked Flitwick. "Seems like they'd be hungry by Saturday night."

"I hadn't a thought of dat," Hagrid admitted. "I better plan on feeding them Wednesday and Friday, so they don't eat the champions."

"Eat the champions!" shouted Cho Chang. "Don't talk about it so casually! Cedric died in the lake and now you're going to feed the others to some other monsters!"

While the Ravenclaw witch hurried from the Great Hall, Hagrid muttered his apologies to Professor Flitwick.

On Wednesday, the small contingent of visitors from each school returned to Hogwarts. Madame Maxime and Igor Karkaroff both immediately asked to see the maze and once they inspected it, flew into a rage at Headmaster Dumbledore. Madame Maxime shouted, "Eight meters! Dumblesdore, that is too tall! The sparks spell goes just over six meters! No one will see the champions if they signal for help!"

"What is this Dumbledore?" demanded Karkaroff. "Planning to knock off our champions because you got your boy killed under the lake?"

To calm the visitors and to prevent the yelling by foreign officials later in the week, Dumbledore approached Madam Bones about borrowing a few Aurors to cut the hedge back to only six meters tall.

"You want Aurors to provide gardening services?" she asked acidly while Diggory stood visible behind the Director of the DLME in the flames of the floo. "You forgot to have your groundskeeper start on time, forced your Herbology professor to spend her time making it grow and now it's too tall?"

"Well, yes," Albus admitted.

Shaking her head to dismiss Albus Dumbledore, Amelia sighed and said, "We'll come to see about it tomorrow."

Then she cut the connection without telling Dumbledore who would come, what time they would arrive, and what she would commit to doing.

SCENE: Thursday Shouting Matches

French and Bulgarian officials arrived at Hogwarts during breakfast and the atmosphere at the school grew into a circus-like frenzy by lunchtime with yelling by government representatives, Aurors flying above the maze casting cutting spells while others cast banishing spells to make the cutoff branches disappear, and Hagrid worried about someone upsetting the giant spider or his blasted-end skrewt already placed into the maze.

Madam Bones took one look at Hagrid's breeding pens, sent for the Unspeakables, and then arrested the half-giant. She agreed to leave him at Hogwarts until his trial 'at some future date' but ordered the Unspeakables and her Aurors to destroy all the highly illegal, cross-breed creatures. Fortunately, none of the French or Bulgarian officials saw the carcasses until after all the creatures were put down. Madame Maxime grabbed Hagrid's ear and twisted it, promising to introduce him to her brothers who were full-sized giants in the Pyrenees if any of his crossbreed creatures were in the maze when her champion stepped inside for the contest on Saturday evening.

"What do you mean there is an Acromantula in the maze?" shouted Amos Diggory. "They're class XXXX creatures! Dragons are class XXXXX! That's like saying you have a Cerberus."

Seeing the look on Hagrid's face, Amos roared, "You're just trying to kill more children! Do you have a Cerberus near this school?"

Fluffy was soon put into stasis by the Unspeakables and once he was shrunk down, Amelia sent the creature to an endangered creature preserve in Outer Orkney Islands far above the Scottish mainland. The Unspeakables controlled the small series of islands where the creatures lived, were well-fed and allowed to breed. The population was culled each decade and new blood stocks were introduced from other preserves around the world.

Dumbledore tried to stay out of eyesight of Bones and Diggory while they dismantled Hagrid's animal pens. Then Bones demanded of Hagrid, "Now where did you get an Acromantula?"

CHANGE: Press Coverage

The Daily Prophet on Friday morning carried disturbing headlines. 'Hogwarts Breeding Illegal Creatures! Dumbledore Allows Colony of Acromantula in Forbidden Forest! Treaty with Centaurs Broken for More than Fifty Years!'

The ICW intervened with multiple individuals appearing via very strong portkeys into the village of Hogsmeade. A constant stream of specialists on broomsticks and flying carpets flew over the Forbidden Forest on Friday to get a census and physical size of the clutter of giant spiders. Several entrepreneurs came and flew with the specialists to survey the quality of the spider silk that was available to harvest as well as the number of the arachnids large enough to make harvest profitable.

The Cornelius Fudge arrived and began ordering everyone to leave Magical Britain. "This is a British matter! Your opinion has not been asked for nor is it appreciated! Get out of Britain or I'll have you arrested."

The leader from the ICW team pointed out several uncomfortable facts to the wizard, "Fudge, Magical Britain is in violation of multiple treaties! You have illegal breeding! The experts say that's the largest colony of Acromantulas in the entire world! There are no predators keeping their numbers under control!"

"Then we'll get some predators!"

"You want to import Nundus from Africa or Dragons from Romania! That'll only break a dozen more treaties!"

"Then I'll arrest Ruben Haggerty! Send him to Azkaban! Will that make you happy?" asked Cornelius.

"Without a trial? Break another treaty and the laws of your queen!"

"My who?" asked Fudge. Then remembering the laws, the wizard grimaced. "Oh her. Let's not pester her about any of this. Men can settle things better anyway."

SCENE: Commiserating

Albus Dumbledore sat in his office with the floo blocked, the portraits silenced and put to sleep, and the door locked. He stared at the bottle of Fire Whiskey and wished he could swallow the entire litre down in one go. But the resulting firestorm from his ears would burn the hair off his head leaving him bald for a month. Fawkes slept on her perch and the wizard wasn't certain if she really slept or pretended to sleep to avoid dealing with his emotions this evening.

The charm on his door told him that Cornelius Fudge was beside the gargoyle guardian demanded to be allowed inside. Waving his wand – and why didn't it work like it did once upon a time? – he set the stairs in motion to bring the minister to his office.

Albus rose and gazed out the window – Hogwarts allowed him to choose the view from the window and tonight he watched the virtual town of magical tents that had been raised on the meadows outside the village. The ICW Creatures Committee had arrived before dark. Hagrid was up to his armpits in a bubbling potions cauldron and would have to leave Hogwarts.

'Perhaps the goblins have some use for the poor boy dealing with their creatures,' he thought. 'I'll have to send an inquiry in a few days.'

Cornelius stumbled into the headmaster's office and made certain to close the door. He looked at the headmaster and said, "Get me out of here! Let me use your floo to get back to the ministry! Bones has assigned my guards to patrol that village of tents filled with foreigners tonight and tomorrow!"

Sighing dramatically, Dumbledore offered the minister a drink but completely out of character, Cornelius replied, "No. I must get back to my office with a clear head. They're planning to send a thousand hunters here on Sunday to kill those spiders and take all those galleons away from me…us."

Rising from his desk, Dumbledore walked over to the fireplace and ignited the flames to access the floo network. Cornelius observed the headmaster had to be close to his fireplace to start it when usually he could cast the spell from his desk. But Cornelius had more important things on his mind and brushed passed the headmaster to grab some floo powder from the container on the mantle.

"It may be time to consider retirement, Cornelius," Dumbledore said to the man. "With so many challenges, you might do well to let someone younger deal with these burdens."

Hearing Dumbledore's advice, Cornelius paused for only a moment before he turned back and said, "That is very generous of you to shoulder all the blame for the problems. I shall contact the School Governors tonight and tell them that you are going to retire at the end of the school year. You'll be the sacrificial niffler for the ICW and someone younger can deal with the burdens at the school."

The minister threw the powder into the floo and called out "Minister's office ministry for magic." Then Cornelius stepped into the green flames and vanished.

Dumbledore stood silently for a moment before using the agumenti spell to throw water into the flames and extinguish them. He made his way back to his desk and sat down heavily. His head in his hands he thought, 'I wish I'd never read anything about the Tri-Wizard Tournament! My wish to reform Tom Riddle will kill me and the whole of Britain! I know he'll try to come back Saturday night! I know it!'

CHANGE: Doggie Polyjuice

The late afternoon of Saturday 24 June finally arrived. Hogwarts was crowded with visitors – many parents arrived to attend the Third Task with their children. Harry was particularly pleased when Remus arrived, but he was caught off guard by the English Bulldog who accompanied him rather than the large Grim.

"Where's Padfoot?" Harry asked anxiously, the bulldog was jumping around and yipping with excitement at the young wizard's feet. He knelt on one knee only to end up on his bottom when the bulldog tackled him and slobbered all over his face with doggie kisses.

Remus whispered, "Doggie Polyjuice. Something new from an American potion master. I asked Padfoot to try some because the Grim is just too big to transport in the vehicles and attracts lots of attention at border crossings."

The bulldog was cute and attracted the attention of lots of witches including Fleur Delacour. The French champion greeted the dog with more kisses and her parents welcomed an introduction to the wizard whose dog had saved their daughter from the assassin months earlier. Monsieur Delacour expressed his surprise that the bulldog could have saved his daughter and Remus confessed to the use of the new doggie Polyjuice.

"I love Padfoot but he's a bit much for space some days. He likes the different shapes I think because he remains happy all day long. And he loves Harry, so I had to bring him today."

"Bon!" Madame Delacour declared. "I have read about the Polyjuice for le chien–the dogs–in a brewer's magazine this year. How long does one dose last?"

"Doggy Polyjuice lasts for twenty-three hours. When it wears off the dog sleeps for a couple hours and then needs exercise before you can dose him again. Padfoot's been a Labrador, a Labradoodle, and Foxhound with good results. He didn't like being a Beagle, but he loved being a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. My house elf got very exasperated that day because he spent all day cleaning every mirror in the house. Padfoot went from one room to the other and sat in front of a mirror and licked his reflection."

Padfoot growled at the Remus for a moment before Harry laughed and lifted the heavy dog to put him on a table in the Great Hall. Fleur leaned in and said, "Monsieur Padfoot has excellent taste. I shall kiss his face too!"

The bulldog wiggled and licked the beautiful witch's face until she gave up trying to kiss him.

"Good luck tonight, Miss Delacour," Harry said as the champion and her parents moved away.

Smiling back at him, Fleur nodded and waved farewell. Remus asked, "Friends with the lovely Miss Delacour? Your Dad would be proud of you."

"Mademoiselle Delacour," corrected Harry.

Remus smirked, "We should have you in charge of international relations. Barty Crouch vanished a few months ago and Fudge ignored the vacancy, letting relations with our neighbours sour even more."

Nodding, Harry added, "There's been a circus here every day since exams finished last week. We had our end-of-year exams and then this week the examiners from the ministry were here to give the fifth year their OWLs and the seventh year their NEWTs."

Remus asked, "How do you think you did on your end of year examinations?"

Grinning, Harry said, "I think I did good. The tests were longer than our usual tests, but I didn't have problems with anything except for some of the questions on potions."

Nodding, the werewolf said, "Professor Tonks will correct the deficiencies in your tuition next year."

"She is a great teacher and brewer. Her potions taste better than Snape's potions."

"What have you needed potions for?"

"Oh, just a headache potion after exams one day and a pepper up potion the next morning."

"But nothing broken and no magical exhaustion?"

Seated alone in the Great Hall, Remus asked about the performance of the computers and printers again. Harry explained, "Everything worked great. But Hogwarts pays attention now to the computers and she has the elves scanning in more books and ancient papers."

"We'll need to work on an indexing system and search engine," Remus replied not aware that the castle was listening. When a letter appeared at the table a few minutes later, the werewolf quickly moved it into a pocket to make certain no one noticed.

"Does Hogwarts seem more 'aware' this year?" Remus asked while reading the letter from the castle asking about standard naming conventions she should instruct the elves to use. Hogwarts was determined to scan the entire library into her computer memory.

Harry nodded and confessed his big secret, "It started the first night of school when that witch and the fake Alastor Moody broke the Goblet of Fire. The magic from the goblet dripped out onto the floor and Hogwarts absorbed it.

"The magic fell out?"

"It dripped out. Faster at first but then by Halloween, there was hardly anything left in the goblet. That night, Dumbledore used his funny wand to get the goblet to select the champions but that went balls-up before the fake Alastor burned up the goblet. And starting that night, the headmaster's wand dripped magic out onto the floor."

"Did the magic stop dropping from Dumbledore's wand yet?"

"Almost. There's not a lot falling out now. I don't know if that means the wand is empty or if it clogged up the leak."

"So you see these drops of magic falling onto the floor?"

"Yep. I have a friend who sees it too and she said to not tell anyone or the Crumple-Horned Snorkacks would begin asking me lots of questions because no one thinks I'm crazy and ignores me."

Remus looked thoughtful when he asked, "Your friend sounds wise beyond her years."

"I asked Hogwarts about magic dripping out of artefacts and she shared a few articles written a long time ago."

"I'd like to read those…" Remus said when there was a pop beside him.

"Mr Wolfie nots share with anyone," Pinemeedle instructed the wolf as she handed over a three-ring binder with printed pages inside.

"Lord, Harry!" declared Remus briefly glancing at the papers. "Your spells and elves have been busy."

"That's Hogwarts. The elves who started working for me spend all their time scanning files from her treasures and books from the library. She's determined to turn this school around," Harry said quietly. "I'm not sure what she's got planned for me, but I'm going to be very busy next year."

Remus grinned and said, "Good! If a sentient Hogwarts is asserting herself, Whiskers will be regulated to being a figurehead."

"At the very least," Harry predicted.

During afternoon tea in the Great Hall where the families spent time talking with a few members of the staff brave enough to appear, Remus was approached by Madam Pence. The librarian was nervous but determined when she spoke with him, "Mr Lupin, I have a very strange notice from…well, from the castle it seems. She – Hogwarts – is demanding that my library elves and I all take some computer courses this summer. She says that you are the person who can arrange these classes."

"Classes?" Remus asked. He glanced at Harry before continuing, "The elves apparently are easy. They just need to spend time with a few knowledgeable elves to assimilate the knowledge."

"How comfortable are you in the muggle world?" asked Harry.

Madam Pence glanced around the room and whispered, "I love going into muggle-land in the summer. I spend my vacation at Harrods, at the cinema, and eating dinner at different restaurants every night."

Remus asked, "Why do you stay here?"

"This library is one of a kind. I keep a close record of all the titles that Dumbledore has removed. If I can outlast him, I can get the elves to return those books to the shelves. In the last thousand years, Hogwarts has never been overrun by a dark lord or invading army. The libraries in Rome were sacked by the popes at different times and even Beauxbatons fell to Napoleon in 1800. He burned many scrolls and manuscripts to heat his tent that winter."

Remus asked, "How is your French?"

Pence smiled and replied, "J'adore la france et je parle très bien français."

"Bon!" Remus replied. "I'll send you a letter the day after Harry leaves Hogwarts."

"I'll be here for two days after the students leave to close and seal the library so 'he' can't take any more books."

Harry frowned and asked, "Is there some spell or potion I can drink to learn French?"

"There are charms that will help you learn the language while you sleep for four nights. French is easier to learn than English I understand. The charms to understand how we mangle verbs and use the same word in different ways takes six days."

SCENE: To the Maze

Harry, Remus and Padfoot joined his friends at the Gryffindor table for dinner. Ron complained about the dog at the table for only a moment before Lavender Brown, Parvati Patil, and Hermione Granger exclaimed, 'The dog's got better table manners! He has an excuse to eat like a dog! He doesn't make me ill watching him eat."

Walking behind his younger brother, Fred Weasley leaned over and whispered that Ron was jealous because the dog was able to lick something and Ron turned bright red before shutting up for the rest of the meal.

Remus watched Albus Dumbledore and found the headmaster looked his age – all 137 years. McGonagall looked frazzled as though she'd shouldered even more of the headmaster's role during the year. The Gryffindor table appeared to be even more boisterous than usual, but the castle's wards kept any pranks from working.

And there were numerous foreigners among the diners tonight. ICW officials were seated at the staff table beside Dumbledore while several French and Bulgarian officials sat with their champions and families. After a short final course of pudding, Headmaster Dumbledore stood and invited everyone to adjourn from the Great Hall and follow the lighted torches to the maze grown on the Quidditch Pitch where the Tri-Wizard Tournament would conclude with the third task.

He stumbled a bit saying, "Our three champions will compete…our two champions will compete for the eternal glory of winning the competition."

He paused for a moment and then added, "And a thousand galleon purse."

Minister Cornelius Fudge rose from his seat to make some remarks, but everyone ignored the wizard and filed from the Great Hall with much conversation and good spirits. Fudge frowned but found no one would pay him any attention.

The seating for the tournament had been expanded during the day. (Competent magic-users could accomplish great tasks in a single afternoon). As Harry and his friends made their way to the section reserved for students, Remus and Padfoot followed along. They overheard several English and French entrepreneurs discussing the profits they'd make as the harvest of the Acromantula continued over the next week. One fellow was speaking to another about the value that Rubeus Hagrid could bring to the Dangerous Animal Preserves around the globe.

"We can't let Fudge lock him up in that hell hole. After the last creature in that maze is sent to an appropriate location, I'm going to take him directly to the Orkneys and let him settle the Cerberus into its pack."

CHANGE: Staring at Hedges

From their seats in the stands, the students stared at the maze. The contest had begun twenty minutes earlier and, in those minutes, the spectators had seen nothing though they heard a few creatures scream as they were fried or thrown about. A boggart was thrown thirty feet into the air and fell outside the maze, landing beside Professor McGonagall. Once on the ground, the boggart turned into Headmaster Dumbledore with a pile of papers in his hands that he thrust toward McGonagall. Her Riddikulus spell morphed the Boggart into a scantily clad, younger wizard who ran off into the nearby Forbidden Forest.

There was one explosion in the maze and Harry sighed. "I hope that was the last Blasted End Skrewt getting blown up! Those wizards from the ICW killed all the others and banished the carcasses."

After an hour had passed, Remus began asking, "How is this interesting?"

Around the stadium, people were leaving, arguments were breaking out, and some students played chess or exploding snap. Several elderly witches and wizards had fallen asleep despite crying youngsters in the crowd. At the judge's table, Madame Maxime and Igor Karkaroff kept their attention on the maze using several tracking spells but Fudge, Director Bones, and the ICW officials were bored. They ignored a continuous argument by Albus Dumbledore that the profits from the Acromantula clutter should be funnelled into his discretionary fund for school expenses.

A few more minutes passed before an Acromantula was thrown from the maze. The spider was the size of a large steer, and it flew across hedges toward the judges' stand where Cornelius Fudge and Albus Dumbledore sat. Fudge shouted with fear while Dumbledore attempted to banish the creature. His magic managed to send the beast back into the maze where it fell between the hedges.

Then the hedges fell – the spell cast to begin the hedge was set to banish the hedges as soon as one of the champions touched the substitute goblet in the centre of the maze.

From the stands, the spectators watched the various creatures attempt to scramble away for the Forbidden Forest or fall on each other to fight. Karkaroff and several Bulgarians leapt over the railing to rush into the disappearing maze – the Acromantula thrown back into the maze had landed on and crushed Victor Krum.

Everyone else turned toward the judges' stand where the winner – Fleur Delacour – should be standing with the goblet in her hands.

But she never appeared.

SCENE: The Graveyard

Reaching the centre of the maze, Fleur reached the substitute Goblet of Fire and touched it. She was pulled into a magical spell that should have transported her to the judge's platform instantly. But she felt herself spinning much longer than expected. And when it ended, the witch was thrown to the ground and quickly stupefied. When she awoke with a headache, Fleur heard a squeaky voice asking, "Who is this witch?"

"She's the French champion, my lord," a wizard with a rat face was addressing an ugly baby in a bundle of cloth.

"French? And she won the contest? Not Harry Potter?"

Watching closely, Fleur noticed the rat-wizard looked away before he said, "She must be very powerful, my lord. She reached the cup in the maze without any help from Barty at Hogwarts."

A small hand waved, and the squeaky voice commanded, "Proceed with the ritual!"

Her arms were tied above her head and while she tore at the knots slowly with a single finger transformed into a claw, Fleur spotted her wand on the ground near her left foot. The rat-wizard conjured a fire underneath a large copper cauldron and quickly mixed together buckets of potions and other ingredients.

When a large snake appeared and slithered around the baby form, the squeaky voice ordered the creature to retreat to the trees. Using English to reassure Pettigrew, the Dark Lord commanded, "Nagini, you'll distract Peter from his work if you wrap around him. Wait in the treetops for me to call you!"

Fleur watched the rat-wizard stir the cauldron and add ingredients to bring it to a rolling boil. Then he used his wand to summon bones from a nearby grave – something about the father not knowing. Her senses were on alert looking for the snake once again.

Then the rat-wizard surprised the witch by cutting off his own hand into the potion and muttering about a loyal follower. Casting a tourniquet on the stump of his arm, the rat-wizard shuffled over to the captive witch, cut her arm, and gathered her blood on the blade of the knife.

He hurried back to the cauldron and dipped the knife into the potion and said something about an enemy. Fleur's frown grew deeper – stealing her blood was a major violation of French law. She watched as the rat-wizard picked up the bundle of cloth, disrobed the baby, and dropped it into the cauldron.

She smirked, 'Rat-face didn't remove the couche. Will the dark lord rise wearing a nappy?'

Rat-wizard stood beside the cauldron, invoking the ritual for the Dark Lord Voldemort to rise. After several minutes, a figure did rise from the cauldron. Peter Pettigrew stared and once again wondered if he should just apparate away without a destination in mind. The theory was that wizards could suicide painlessly using the apparition spell.

"Robe me!" the Dark Lord commanded. "Peter, robe me!"

"Yes, my lord," the rat-wizard replied as he helped the new form step out of the cauldron. Fleur catalogued the resurrected wizard's most outstanding features – he had a full spread of feathers as a topknot as well as wing feathers down each arm and his posterior was covered by down feathers.

Fleur snorted, 'The nappy turned into down feathers! He'll sit in comfort every day of his life.'

And the dark lord stood on two bird legs, long and bright yellow with three clawed toes on each foot. The wizard -homunculus that rose from the cauldron stared at his feathered arms, and his legs and feet. The only thing he could think was, 'Chicken feet! I've got chicken feet!'

"What in Merlin's name did you do to me, Pettigrew?" the wizard asked as he glanced down and scratched at the ground. Tom Riddle fought off the urge to bend over and peck at the small rocks his feet had uncovered. Then he commanded, "Give me my wand!"

"Yes, my lord," Peter said handing over a dark wand and cringing. Tom Riddle was furious, but he had to have help from some of his dependable Death Eaters if he was to fix this botched resurrection.

"Give me your arm," Dark Lord Bird ordered before Peter lifted the arm missing the hand.

"The other arm!" The Dark Lord crowed before pressing the tip of his wand against a tattoo on Peter's arm to summon his followers. None appeared over the next two minutes. Then the Dark Lord turned to Peter and demanded, "Where are my devoted followers?"

"I don't…don't know, my lord," Peter replied.

Laughter came from the witch hanging from the statue of an angel turning the attention of the two wizards(?) toward her. Fleur explained, "They are all dead, Monsieur Flees-From-Death. Last summer, your followers dressed up in silly costumes and attacked the fans at the World Cup. They were caught, given potions, named names and then they were thrown through some window in the departments of mysteries."

"Not all of them! It couldn't have been all of them!" the Dark Lord declared.

"Give me your arm again, Peter!" crowed the Dark Lord, causing the witch to laugh once more. Infuriated, the Dark Lord shoved the tip of his wand into the mark on Peter's arm, making the cowardly wizard howl in pain. The tourniquet on his other arm was loose and blood dripped out.

After several minutes, there was a single loud pop as a single wizard appeared. The wizard, Barty Crouch, Jr., appeared dressed as a muggle with a simple wizard's robe thrown over his clothes.

"Who summoned me? Pettigrew, what is this? Where is our lord?" Barty demanded, staring at the feathered creature with obvious revulsion.

Lord Voldemort attempted to stand tall and announce, "I am your lord, Barty Crouch! I am Lord Voldemort!"

The wizard smirked when the voice again turned into a loud crow. The new arrival shook his head and said, "No, you're some creature! Your mother lay down with a giant bird and you have feathers…you're disgusting."

Furious, Lord Voldemort-Bird began throwing spells at Barty Crouch. When the wizard threw the Cruciatus Curse back at Voldemort, the Dark Lord screamed/crowed! This was the first time in his life that Tom Riddle felt the pain of this unforgivable spell!

While the wizards duelled, Fleur freed herself, cutting through the rope. She fell onto her wand, petrified Peter Pettigrew, and tied him up with multiple spells in French. Checking for signs of the snake and finding none, Fleur held onto the rat-wizard as she summoned the substitute Goblet of Fire. When it touched her hand, she vanished from the graveyard where the feathered Flees-From-Death and Barty Crouch, Jr. continued to battle.

SCENE: Fleur's Return

Almost forty-five minutes passed since the moment Fleur Delacour grabbed the substitute Goblet of Fire in the maze that signalled her victory in the Tri-Wizard Tournament. For the first minute, everyone turned their attention to Headmaster Karkaroff and the British Aurors blasting the giant spider off Victor Krum before Madame Maxime began demanding Dumbledore explain where her student was.

Victor survived the collision with the spider, but he had several crushed bones and ruptured organs, so the Aurors put the Bulgarian seeker into stasis and apparated him to Saint Mungos in London. Karkaroff stalked Dumbledore – the Hogwarts headmaster had thrown the spider back into the maze where it fell upon the Dramstrung champion.

"Where is Mademoiselle Delacour, Dumblesdore!" demanded the headmistress. "You cannot even cast a portkey spell properly! If she's injured or worse, I shall tear you limb from limb!"

"It was a simple portkey from the maze to here," Dumbledore replied. "Moody cast it months ago."

"Moody?" asked Karkaroff. "Do you mean the wizard who was impersonating Alastor Moody? The wizard who vanished before the Aurors came for him? And you didn't check any of his work left behind? Merlin's left testicle, Albus, you are senile and dangerous!"

At that moment, there was a loud POP and Fleur Delacour, bloody and dirty, appeared on the judges' stand. Cornelius Fudge screamed and took a step back before falling off the stage and rolling down the stairs to the ground. On the stage stood the winner of the Tri-Wizard Tournament with one foot firmly holding down a trussed-up wizard. In one hand, Fleur held her wand in a duelling pose as she surveyed the crowd looking for threats. In her other hand, she held the fake Goblet of Fire with the portkey that took her far away from Hogwarts and the second portkey that brought her back. Under her foot, the wizard weakly begged for someone to kill him.

Fleur!" shouted her parents, sister, and headmistress as they rushed toward the witch.

End of Chapter